Rogue Huntsman
by Xera Stark
Summary: Sure, he ran a bar, but it wasn't like people liked him. He just had good alcohol. When the past starts finding its way back to the surface though, he and his info-broker infiltrate Beacon for answers, only to find a mute kitsune and a forging introvert on their team alongside them. It wasn't bad, he just despised how much he was actually starting to care for them. (Yuri warning)
1. Acceptance

Rogue Huntsman

Acceptance

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213,000 people.

That's what makes up the population of the Kingdom of Vale. Less than half of that population knows what aura so much as looks like, even fewer know someone who possesses aura.

8% of that number die every ten years to incidents involving Grimm. 17,040 lives lost to a threat we so hopelessly fight. 3% of that number are people who possess aura, rounding to 511 aura users every decade.

160 aura users of that population currently attend the renowned school of Beacon Academy every year throughout all of its four graduating classes. Only 39% graduate.

An insignificant 62 slightly successful combatants. 61% fail out, 98 useless failures.

The world is as idiotic as it is primitive. Each bone that makes up this society's back is cracking, its spine breaking, it just gets worse day by day. Its resources are wasted. Civilization, as a race, wastes its time and energy fighting back the infestation of Grimm that prowl our every border and beyond.

If humanity can't fight them, then it can burn in hell under the gaze of the darkness that surrounds it. If we can't even protect our own homes? Then we're no more useful than a gun locked in a safe with a broken dial.

This damned world is going to fall to pieces.

"You know, if you're just going to stand there, I might as well just pour _myself_ a drink," a feminine voice cut in, " _That_ way, I can have as much as I want."

"Ano," my voice came out in a harsh tone, my lime green gaze switching from the glass in my hands to the woman at the end of the bar.

Ano smiled, resting her cheek in her palm as I placed a clean glass on the surface in front of me. I swear her smirk was becoming a trademark of hers by now.

The renowned huntress, or rather, the despised huntress gone rogue. She takes the jobs the majority simply avoids, she takes the offers that only bring blood, she takes the blood-money no one else wouldn't so much as touch.

She's Ano, my one, and only friend.

I fixed the rogue huntress a bloody mary and slid her the drink, letting the glass slip along the surface of my bar and settle into her pale hand, "I don't suppose this is insinuating anything, is it?" Ano asked, lifting the glass to cover her lips, dark green eyes peering over its red-hued rim.

"Not at all," I replied, wiping the counter in front of me before turning and addressing a few more customers. Today was rather busy.

Strangers were in and out, only a few staying for more than an hour. My regulars were here all day, more times than not. Playing pool, betting on losses, and drinking their money away. I liked them for that last part, never questioning why their lives revolved solely around this one bar. They give the place a nice atmosphere, an added touch that my old man seemed to create on his own.

"If you weren't seventeen, I'd call you a liar and walk out of here with my drink," Ano spoke up, bringing my attention back to her.

She was beautiful. Not in the attractive way some might think, even though she's incredibly so, but in a lethal way. She held a dangerous edge in both alluring looks and deadly skill. Sat there at the end of my bar, legs crossed one over the other in a place I couldn't see, she sipped her bloody mary and let her eyes roam.

An air of danger simmered from her pale skin, slipping through the fabric of her brown leather coat. Each presiding invisible streak brimmed beneath the lip of her black cowboy hat, only giving her relaxed smile an even deadlier presence behind it.

The soft features of her face only made the woman more intimidating.

"I'm a seventeen-year-old liar, but you're still going to pay for that," I spoke over the noise of those around me. I let my mind wander from the drunken game of darts a few men were playing at the back as I placed my attention on Ano, "Yet, you let me serve you drinks and give me lien in return."

Ano hummed as she swirled the liquid in her glass, "This is your bar. You are the bartender. I am simply just a customer."

"Like hell you are," I roamed over and refilled a couple half-empty glasses along the way, "You're never that simple."

"Still your bar," She retaliated, restating its ownership to me, "It's quite the popular establishment as well. In fact, I think every soul on the western side of Vale knows about it." Ano's green eyes locked on mine, giving me a reason to look away.

"Inherited." I corrected, "This is my old man's bar."

"Ah," The woman chirped, taking another sip of her drink. I caught a glimpse of a grimace before she turned her gaze, "You're holding up well, though. Especially for someone as young as yourself."

This was my father's bar, nothing will change that. It's held strong for the seven years that it's been open. The customers are less than savory people but they supply me with enough lien to keep the place running. In fact, business has only gone up over the last few years.

He'd be proud of that.

The windows out into the dusty streets of Vale glowed in the afternoon light, illuminating the crowded booths at either side of the front door. The establishment held no grungy smells or grimy looks, but it certainly prevailed in the smoky odor that loomed over its inhabitants.

Black padded booths and chairs made up the scattered seating of the bar. Circular tables of wood ran through the open layout of the floor, only leaving room for three pool tables and two dart boards near the back of the building. A sputtering display of lights and clear music resided in the corner furthest from the door where a large music player was set up. Its speakers were evenly scattered throughout the ceiling. Hard and worn wooden floors lay beneath us, only a few squeaks coming through from a couple particular places.

My bar still remained the cleanest place of the entire room. I clean its surface eighty-six times a day, give or take a couple extra customers here and there.

Cheers rang out in the background. Someone had just struck a bullseye on one of the dart boards. I doubted it was anyone but the new guy. He was the only sober one.

"Four years," I said, "I think I've had more than enough time to settle things."

"Is that so?" Ano asked, tilting her head in her hand as she looked past me, "Then why does your father's weapon look untouched on its mantle still?"

Damn.

"I've kept the thing clean. I don't intend to ever use it." I stated, glancing up toward the thin black fingerless glove that snugly remained atop its mantle on my highest shelf. Resting where it belonged.

"It's yours now," Ano spoke from behind me, "At some point or another, you'll need to take it up and finish what your old man started."

She forced a laugh out of my throat, "You know how I feel about hunters."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah… you hate them," Ano replied, "You _despise_ them. But you can't deny that your father wasn't oneof them."

"That doesn't change anything," I said lowly, "It's been four years. I said I've let things settle, but I never said I'd ever let go of what happened."

Ano hummed but didn't respond. She pressed her soft lips to her drink and finished whatever remained at the bottom of her glass, pushing it off to the side after a few seconds.

The door rang and a new customer strolled in. His weary eyes sought me out immediately, and I watched as a crooked frown crossed his lips. He walked his heavy form over, coat hiding a blade at his side, and found himself a seat in front of me.

He was gruff. A bulky frame and what seemed like a hardy attitude to go with it. Gray hair lay in shambles atop his head, reaching gloomily over his eyes as the rest of his attire seemed worn and dull in more places than one.

"A little young to be running a bar, kid," The newcomer said, resting his thick forearms on the counter, "You even legal?"

"More legal than your kind," I responded flatly, crossing my arms.

"My kind?" The man's brows furrowed, hardening his already cold expression.

"The longsword beneath your coat, the modified 1911 hand cannon hidden behind your back," I reached beneath the counter and withdrew another glass, "The stench of aura exuding from your skin."

A hard fist fell on the counter in front of me and I had half a mind to note that it wasn't cracked.

"Kid, you don't know what kind if shit I deal with every day." My gaze didn't falter from the hateful glare of this stranger, "My job gets me paid, that's all. What I have to do out there is something I just have to live with."

"Your profession is your own. You can speak about it whichever way you want." I placed the glass in front of him and narrowed my eyes, "But I know full well what kind of blood you spill."

The man let out a huffed breath and clenched his fist, "Black blood, that's what."

"Your tainted sword and temper say otherwise," I growled, resting my fingertips on the counter before me as its surface shook slightly. A gentle rumble passed through its marble reaches as this man's aura only seemed to flair more and more.

He reeked of blood.

The man's stool crashed to the floor behind him as he drew his gun, fixing the barrel on my forehead as he cocked the hammer back. His teeth lay clenched in an angry grimace, while the brows beneath his gray hair furrowed with a seething rage, "Watch your mouth, boy. My business is my own. I take it where I want to."

"Oh?"

I turned to see Ano at the man's side. A blazing black dagger pressed against his ribs while her soft hand rested itself atop his gun.

"Is that the _only_ thing you take wherever you want?" She asked.

The man made a move to pull away, only to clench back a cry of pain as Ano's dagger pressed harder beneath his third rib, "You have nothing to do with this condescending prick of a child. So back off before you get a bullet alongside him."

"I've been in more fights than you, honey." Ano spoke hotly, the ends of her brown jacket smoldering as I watched the man's gun slowly melt piece by piece, "I'd advise taking your leave before you hurt yourself."

Ano pulled her dagger away soon after and stepped back. The man's shirt now had a scorched tear at his side as a stream of blood drenched the blackened cloth around it. The flair of Ano's aura was coming down, which meant the heat exuding from her skin was also simmering back to normal.

It wasn't over.

I watched as the man dropped his gun to the floor and drew his sword from his coat, brandishing its shining steel through the air in front of him and causing a couple of my customers to step back.

"Get back over here you little bi-"

His words got caught in his throat as a cacophony of guns being drawn drowned his ears. Silence fell over the bar, not a customer stirred as he remained frozen, shaking slightly as his face scrunched up in anger. A bead of sweat ran down the side of his head before he turned his gaze slowly, regarding the entirety of my bar.

I believe I already stated that my customers were less than savory. That didn't mean they were useless scumbags, not in the slightest. These guys were the kind of people you avoided in alleys and on the side of the street. These guys were the kind you'd see riding loud motorcycles and sporting gang emblems on their clothing.

These guys were the kind you'd expect to carry a loaded weapon wherever they go.

"Put that blade away," Ano said, casting a glance over her shoulder at the sword the man held, "Before you regret ever drawing it."

Her words were emphasized by hammers being drawn back from every seat in the house, an assortment of guns aimed at every inch of this man now priming live rounds of ammunition.

Everyone in my establishment loved Ano.

She was a regular as much as they were, after all. She may be hated by the majority that only know her by name but, those that know her by face, they have nothing but respect for a rogue like her.

The man only growled, "Why? He's a gutless bag of hot air behind a bar. He's not even old enough to run one. Why protect the scrawny child?"

Ano sighed before turning around and placing a couple fingers on the flat side of the man's longsword, "Because his father got gunned down before his young eyes in a situation much like this one." Heat radiated down the man's blade as I watched Ano's aura signature burst in a brilliant blaze of orange, something only I could witness, "I protect him because I'm the last guardian he has left."

The smell of scorched flesh suddenly filled the room as the man dropped his sword, rearing his hand back and clutching it in his other. Metal clattered to the ground as his aura melted down through his arm, surging to the severe burns on his once callused hand.

A dry shaken breath left his throat as he watched Ano take her seat.

"Get out of my bar." I broke the silence, my bright gaze brightening as the very air around me seethed in pent up energy. A presence swept over me and I felt my aura surge through my blood, almost boiling over as the man quietly stared at me.

No more words left his lips.

He took up his ruined gun and cooling longsword… and he was gone.

The activities throughout the bar resumed not a moment later. Before long, the hollers, muffled laughter, and drunken proclamations filled the room once again in a familiar atmosphere.

It remained like that until closing time.

* * *

"You know, Niro. You're of age now…" Ano trailed off, her voice hinting toward something obvious as the last of my customers left the bar with faces of mirth and a stumble in their step.

The young woman flicked the tip of her cowboy hat up slightly as she rested her chin in her slender hands, elbows resting gently on the bar as she leaned over it. A small clatter of a couple glasses jingled out before I shut the cabinets below, the last of the shot glasses now having been cleaned and stored.

"I'd be an idiot if I didn't already know. But I'd be an even greater one if I ever decided to follow through with something like that." I said, resting my arms on the counter in front of her. The sleeves of my thin black trench coat didn't slide, a practiced maneuver I did often when talking to customers.

It was then that she tapped my own cowboy hat up slightly, revealing my lime green eyes more as she smiled calmly.

"Beacon's looking for students. Why don't you apply?" Ano asked, her voice soft with a strange gentleness to it.

I felt sick.

"There's no way in hell I'd ever willingly try to get into a school that trains hunters to kill other people." My gaze shot to the side, bringing my face with it as I made my claim.

It was brought back with a small pressure to my chin and the soft touch of her delicate fingers. She was a fighter, a killer, a thief… how were her hands so soft…

"It's a school for those that can learn how to fight." She offered.

"I already know how to fight." I countered, my eyes meeting hers.

"It'll be worth your time. You'll meet people there, get placed on a team, maybe even meet a cute girl…"

I knew what she was doing, and it made me sick, "Beacon trains students to fight other people as much as they do Grimm. It's the reason why exiled hunters exist."

"Exiled hunters kill people because they want to, not because they were trained to," Ano refuted my claim and pulled her hand back to herself, "Beacon wasn't the cause of your father's death."

"It might as well have been," I grumbled, "Just let this go. I'm not going to attend a school like that."

"Maybe not, but you're a special kid, Niro. You have a semblance that's unlike any other. You have power beneath your fingertips like no one could ever imagine. Your aura is strong, stronger than I've ever seen," Ano tilted her head as her voice grew softer, "I'm not asking you to become what you hate. I'm asking you to become the man your father always wanted you to be."

"My old man's-"

"Dead or not, he always knew you'd be a fighter. It's why he started training you the day you learned how to walk. He taught you to run before you even mastered how to crawl. You learned how to use a sword before most kids your age even knew how to speak." Ano's eyes softened now, attempting to crumble the resolve my hard eyes carried beneath the shadow of my hat, "He taught you how to become stronger. He taught you how to learn. He taught you how to live, Niro."

"…Ano-"

"If you don't hone your skills-"

"Ano."

"-then you'll never grow. You can fight better than anyone else your age. You can become even more powerful than you are now-"

"Anoel!" I yelled. The woman before me flinched back slightly and lowered her head. I used her full name, something I rarely ever uttered.

My eyes closed as I let out a slow breath, taking in new air as I cleared my head and collected my thoughts, "Give me one _good_ reason why I'd ever consider accepting the words you're speaking right now."

Ano's gaze remained fixed between her elbows, hidden now beneath the rim of her black hat as we waited for a few moments of silence.

"I tracked down a lead that could bring you to your father's killer."

Her words dulled my senses for a moment, my breath leaving me now as I clenched my teeth. The words she uttered engraved themselves into my mind, running straight through to my heart within my chest as I opened my eyes, "Tell me."

I watched, waiting in aggravating silence, as Ano took a breath and turned her gaze further away, "The headmaster of Beacon Academy knew your father. The two were close. If anyone might know the identity of your old man's killer… it'd be him."

Damn it, damn it all.

My fists clenched, fingers digging into the depths of my palms as I pushed away from the counter and ran them through my hair. This is bullshit. I hated every minuscule prospect of a school built to train hunters from the ground up.

I hated it.

Agitated step after agitated step, I walked back and forth before taking up a cleaned glass and hurling it across the room. Little lights glinted as it shattered against the far wall, loudly piercing the tense silence that currently ensued before I planted my hands on the bar and rested my head heavily against them.

This wasn't happening.

Ano's leads never led anyone astray. Her info gathering was a large part of the reason why everyone who knew her face loved her dearly.

She was never wrong. Her information was never stale. There was not a chance in the furthest reaches of Remnant that her lead was a hollow one.

My fingers clenched around the edge of the counter as I growled into my pale skin, "How do I get in?"

* * *

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or anything associated with the canon pieces of its development. They belong to Monty Oum and the rights of Roosterteeth. However, I do own all original concepts and original characters. Those are mine.**

 **This story is going to focus on Niro as the main character. At the moment, he isn't quite as redeemable as he will be later on. He's very pessimistic and overly hateful about numerous things. Just makes you wanna remove/change him XD. Well, his development will be the focus.**

 **He will gain some highly redeemable qualities down the line. So, don't feel bad that you take no interest in him at the moment. He's a realist after all. He has no reason to believe in the world right now.**

 **All of my other characters will make their own appearances within the walls of this story. However, all plots linking them to their own stories will be severed.**

 **This world is disconnected from all other worlds. Any character can show up. Any character can be presented in any way I see fit.**

 **Anything can happen.**

 **It'll be a world where all other worlds converge.**

 **A fun little side project of mine. Maybe, just maybe, it'll be concluded as well since it's not supposed to go for too long. I will say that this isn't a priority for me right now.**

 **I'm in college after all. My time gets eaten up like no tomorrow. So, the free time I do have might be placed onto my main story. We'll see.**

 **Chapters will remain in a sweet zone of 3-7k words, depending on the events transpiring.**

 **For now,** _ **Favorite**_ **and** _ **Follow**_ **this new story.**

 **I look forward to seeing** _ **REVIEWS**_ **for this. You'll be introduced to a LOT of concepts of mine. Feel free to give me your thoughts.**

 **Cya XP**


	2. Sisters

Rogue Huntsman

Sisters

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39 aura users stood at varying points within the airship. They were a simple sea of colors and unimportant faces, striving to become something greater than they could ever hope to reach.

They leap for success, only for it to undoubtedly end in failure.

Doors of opportunity only open for those privileged enough to be born with the keys.

"Blondie over there's staring at you," Ano spoke up beside me, her eyes tracking something just past my shoulder.

I couldn't care less, "Get her to stop."

I didn't feel like encountering anyone today. I could already sense the buxom blonde's aura, and it was indeed as fiery as she most likely looked. In fact, I could sense everyone's aura within this entire airship in great amounts of detail.

Silhouettes of vibrant colors, contours, and details, flowing hair and shining souls, they all blazed with that kind of hope only the innocent can ever conceive. They were all useless thoughts that they should all just simply abandon.

They weren't going to become heroes here. You don't simply go to Beacon Academy without being manipulated into becoming a weapon for the Council. That's the only pathway out of here. Even those that fail out are sought out for other tasks, other jobs.

It was pitiful. Corrupt.

It was-

Something warm and slim slipped into my hand at my side, tearing my gaze from the window immediately as I felt it grasp my hand and interlace fingers with my own.

What the hell?!

The next thing I felt was a soft weight lean against my shoulder and a pressure of warmth push slightly into my side.

A-ano?!

"What the hell are you doing?" My voice came out cold, not a morsel of heat within it.

"I'm doing as you asked, Niro. I got the _voluptuous_ blonde to stop staring at you." Ano replied, eyes closed. I only had a moment to see the pale lids obscuring the color of her irises before the rim of her hat blocked all view of her face, "It's only natural for her to feel uncomfortable staring at a public act of affection."

If that was all it was… I let out a slight breath and turned back to the window, movement coming to a freeze now throughout the entirety of my body, "Was the emphasis on voluptuous needed?" I asked instead.

"What? Doesn't it just make you want to take a _peak_? Take a _glance_? Come on, it's in your best interest." Ano teased, placing more emphasis on several more of her words.

"Your view of my best interest is far more skewed than you'll ever be willing to admit," I stated, disinterested in the simple idea of even glancing in the blonde's direction. I could sense her presence enough, and I already knew I'd hate her, "You should just drop it. I'm not here to meet anyone. I'm only here to find out what the headmaster knows."

Ano hummed, her warm cheek vibrating slightly against my shoulder before I felt her attempt to pass an aura of warmth through me. Something I felt her do often when reducing the tension in the atmosphere, or simply make someone feel more comfortable.

I cut it off with my own aura.

"You'll find out in time. If anything, he might withhold certain information until you actually prove to him your intent on what it is you'll do with the intel." Ano spoke softly, her pout prominent enough for my senses to easily catch.

These senses of mine have never been stronger than they are today. Well, maybe at my birth when they were at their freshest of states. Back when I felt two strong signatures, the strongest I've ever encountered before for the first time.

Only for one of them to vanish on me immediately after I took my first breath. Frail, poor, innocent… I still blame myself for what happened to her.

It was my burden to bear… but my old man never let me carry it alone. My first breath was her last. I deserved the guilt that followed. That still follows.

I closed my eyes for a moment, letting the thoughts leave me before my senses continued to sharpen. We were getting closer to an even larger culmination of aura users… Never before have I felt this many in my immediate vicinity.

It was a feeling that I couldn't describe, nor did I have any intent on trying to. They brought me power. That was all that mattered.

"My intent should be clear. He has no right to deny me of it." I replied, lime green eyes opening again as I caught a glimpse of them in the window. What rushed by below was of little interest to their gaze.

Scenery was just the layout of the world, the makeup of the land, ready to be changed and trampled on for the amusement and advancement of civilization. We extort the world for all its resources, outsource it to be used in all manners of possibility, and hope that it continues to produce what we so fruitlessly expend in a pointless initiative against all Grimm kind.

Valuable resources wasted on a threat that doesn't die.

You can't diminish the ocean by simply breaking its waves. You need to dive deep, extinguish the source, and drain the rest.

Doing anything else is a waste of time.

"He's the headmaster of an _Academy_ , Niro." Ano responded, her slender grip tightening into my cold hand, "He's the head of a school that specializes in training teens and young adults to fight and broaden their knowledge. How willing do you think he'll be when he hears your reasoning for finding out this information?"

It always bothered me whenever Ano was undeniably right about something. That feeling usually became the worst when she happened to prove me wrong while doing it. Or, when the new information gets in the way of what I need. Every other time, it's a blessing that she seems to never be wrong.

No, it wasn't because she was right and I was wrong. If that were the case, then I'd be able to drop it like the slip of a pin.

I hated it because she made it a point to rub it in, like salt into a fresh wound made with a hot blade.

"How do you think I should… persuade him, to give me the info?" I asked, gritting my teeth slightly and tensing my jaw.

Her smirk was louder than her words.

"Well~ Tact is something you lack. You won't be able to convince him of any amount of innocence at all, there's no doubt about that. However, what you can do is prove yourself to him. Make him think that you carry a reason strong enough to warrant the information being needed." Ano explained, letting out a short hot breath as I felt her head shift slightly against my shoulder, "Give him the impression that you do what you do for the right reasons, not for the wrong."

"I'm a realist, not evil," I argued with a level voice.

"You're pessimistic and cold, two qualities that quickly depict you as a condescending prick. But they also make you a potential evildoer." Ano replied back with a quiet laugh, humor evident in her tone.

"I'm not going to change-"

"No one's asking you to." Ano cut me off, "Just make yourself clear that, despite your actions and undoubtedly your words, you have a steady heart. If you can convince him of that, then I have no doubt that he'll give you the information you need to find your father's killer."

Her ability to shut me down was uncanny. I couldn't even think of another soul that could do what she does with that much ease, not a single one.

Which reminds me.

Why the hell is that scraggly blonde guy over there the only one on this ship without an aura signature?

My eyes followed his movements, looking away from the window for merely a moment as he ran past the curvy blonde Ano had mentioned earlier and a shorter brunette at her side.

I didn't need to have heightened senses… to know what was about to vacate his stomach.

The blonde screamed, the brunette screamed, Ano laughed…

I hated school already.

* * *

Wasted energy. Ozpin had a point there, I'll give him that. Out of the 160 students here, a majority of them can only hope to pass and graduate. Maybe even do something with their soon to be pitiful lives under the Council's ever vast thumb.

The rest who fail… they can become bakers.

Or something.

His speech was brief, another point I'll give him. It wasn't annoyingly extensive and it wasn't pointlessly short, like a greeting or an overview of things we already know. He spoke with a realism that I appreciated.

At least, up until he walked off stage and the riding crop woman spoke her first live-words. Glynda Goodwitch. She had spoken on the airship. You'd need to be deaf not to have noticed. So, those were her first words spoken in person rather than over a transmission.

They could easily be summed up in a few words even a simpleton could understand.

A god damn mass sleepover.

"Come on, it'll be fun!" Ano spoke up at my side with an amused smile, "We'll huddle up in a corner somewhere and build a wall out of people's blankets. They won't even notice! Then we'll be in a nice secluded corner, away from prying eyes…"

Stop talking.

"I don't feel uncomfortable sleeping in the same room as other people. Stop implying that I do." I replied to her, the stroll in my step not faltering. We were walking around campus for now, but I already had the layout of the area down to the exact amount of blades of grass that stood sharply in the courtyards of the Academy.

Ano seemed to huff for a moment, "In any case, we'll be sleeping in there or we can camp out elsewhere. Either way, we'll need to be at the cliff's edge tomorrow morning for initiation."

"I don't need sleep. And getting there won't be an issue." I replied.

"Trust me, I've seen you tired. You _definitely_ need your princely slumber." Ano laughed again, tipping the front of her cowboy hat up slightly to reveal silver eyes.

Humorous.

Her matte black bullhide leather cowboy hat seemed darker in the sunlight, somehow. It nestled atop her head snugly and let her long black hair flow down to the middle of her lower back. She wore her usual clothing today.

Encompassing her upper body was an open brown leather jacket, unclasped and revealing a white shirt beneath it. A pair of pale dark-gray jeans adorned her legs before leading into black combat boots to complete her ensemble.

My own black combat boots pressed firmly into the cobbled path below as I ignored her comment. Instead, I let my senses roam as a breeze kicked at the tails of my trench coat. I could've had my hands in the pockets of my black jeans as well, but I preferred to keep them at my sides.

My father's thin black fingerless glove was fitted snugly onto my right hand and slightly up my forearm. Its simple black fabric was comfortable, but it was easy to tell that it wasn't anything ordinary.

Just from the feel of it on my arm, it was enough to declare its presence to my mind as if it were a knife in my side. It was made of nearly weightless material… yet weighed down my arm so heavily. I'd have thought I really did have a knife in my side. And I was losing blood by the second.

Ano's humming, which I was steadily blocking from my mind, came to a soft stop when the sound of hard soles meeting stone echoed out behind us.

I finally brought my senses back to me, but immediately swept them aside as I kept in an internal groan that threatened to spill out from my pressed lips.

Please don't make me hate them more than I already do…

"Excuse me! Uh, would you mind if we asked you something?"

It was the blonde who was speaking. Great. She's probably dragging along the brunette just to spite the cliché of overprotective older sisters wanting nothing more than the best for their adorable kin.

I'd burn her at the stake if she weren't already fire proof.

"Oh, hello," Ano spoke at my side, turning around to greet the nuisances behind us. "Who might you two be?"

Ano turned me around with her. Something I _definitely_ wouldn't have done on my own. In fact, I was content on continuing walking.

I think I'll do just tha-

She had an iron grip on my arm. That woman…

It boggled my mind that she was even here anyway. Technically, she's already a huntress. I'm not sure by whose standards, but her skills could easily overshadow the majority of the population of Vale. She wasn't even more than two years older than me, making her no older than nineteen.

She could easily pass as a student, undoubtedly more beautiful than most. That much I knew. But, her skill warranted her to already be at a level beyond Beacon's first-year class. If she already had so much experience, then why was she here? I had to be here because I needed information. That's all.

Her only reason here probably revolved around me being here.

What was the point in that? Her time would've been better placed elsewhere.

"Hellooo~ My name's Yang Xiao Long, and this is my little sister Ruby!" My focus finally returned to me, and I met the heated gaze of red masked by a veil of cool lilac. Her complexion was pale and her form easily attractive, but my eyes didn't so much as move beneath her own irises.

I already knew what her silhouette looked like. Though, her clothes matched her likely personality perfectly. Yang, a teenage girl with a tan vest over a snugly fit low-cut yellow crop top. The crest resembling a burning heart alone could tell you everything you need to know about what I was currently meeting eyes with.

She wore a brown belt with a buckle, a pouch, and a small banner-like object at her waist. Rings of dust cartridges in sets of twelve filled a few of her pouches from what I sensed, causing my eyes to finally make a move as they snapped to the bracelets on her arms.

Fingerless black gloves adorned her hands beneath two seemingly mechanized golden bracelets with smooth points and angular curvature. A momentum-based gear system rattled within them with every small movement, flooding into my ears before I tuned into something else. She wore black shorts under her belt and a pleated skirt in the back, each resting beneath a white asymmetrical back skirt.

Brown knee-high platform boots with orange socks of different lengths caught my peripherals, and it took a couple nerves in my body to not grow even more agitated by the lack of coordination. Just because they matched her infinity scarf around her neck doesn't mean she gets to pull them up different lengths of her legs.

Speaking of that, fix your hair damn it! I know that it's long and blonde, loose and messy, but you still have a few locks sticking out and a small cowlick on the top of your head!

"R-right, I'm Ruby Rose." A meeker voice spoke up, something I, for a moment, preferred over the voice of the buxom blonde at her left, "We were just wondering if you knew anything about how the team system worked. I heard a couple rumors about partners," She started to sway and fidget, was she always like that? "But I don't really know if they're true. It's all just speculation for now."

A young, silver-eyed girl of the approximate age of fifteen. She wore a black blouse, and for some odd reason, a black waist cincher with red lacing. Were those even in fashion? Didn't all of those get burned a couple centuries ago?

Below that was a skirt with red trim, something bright and crimson to match her equally colored hooded cloak that seemed to pull backward in the shifting wind. The hood itself was bunched up behind her shoulders and nape.

She had shoulder-length black hair with a red tint to it, a seemingly reoccurring color scheme for the small girl. She even had black combat boots to match her trimmed skirt, detailing in red as well. Black stockings adorned her legs, which were much more modest than her counterpart.

Too bad most of my attention laid focused on the hunk of red metal behind her waist.

I felt a tension in it as if it were compacted somehow. Its frame was hard to trace with my mind, only working out some of its interiors before my mind flexed slightly at the feeling of the edge of a large sharpened blade.

That was all I needed to know.

"Well, I happened to pick up a few rumors as well if you'd like to hear them. Are you interested?" Ano asked, eyeing the younger girl with a kind eye as I turned my gaze away entirely.

The trees were more interesting at the moment.

Classic Ano, already becoming the number one info broker for poor un-funded ill-informed potential Beacon students.

"Really?" Ruby asked in interest, her attention growing.

"How much do you know?" Thankfully, I felt Yang's eyes leave me as she asked my partner a question instead.

Ano smirked, but I knew that she knew she couldn't exactly extort these girls for money. She continued anyway, "Rumor has it that partners are going to be decided by a randomized system of sorts. It's unlikely going to be assigned by the instructors themselves… it's more likely that it'll be a system put in place that makes it partially the student's choice alongside it."

"So we really can pick our partners?!" Ruby asked, almost excitedly, as I felt her gaze turn slightly to her sister.

I doubted they were sisters.

Ano shrugged, "I wouldn't say pick. It'd probably be something along the lines of the first person you meet up with. We'll be going to the edge of the Emerald Forest, so it's most likely that that'll be our initiation grounds. Whoever we meet out there will likely be our partner."

"How do you know, though? Isn't it just speculation at the moment?" Ruby asked.

"Call it intuition." Ano offered.

Like hell, that was usually never the case. I don't know how, but she found a way to source her information from someone who knew the plans of tomorrow. Someway, somehow, she's already found a direct source from inside the system.

She was sly. She was the perfect info broker.

"Intuition, huh? I guess us women have to stick together then, it'll leave the guys hanging alongside their mouths. What's your name by the way?" Yang asked.

"Ano." The rogue chirped with a smile before I suddenly felt all eyes on me, "And this here's my partner in crime, Niro."

She was correct on _all_ accounts when she said that.

"Niro and Ano, you two sound like a pretty adorable matchup. How long have you been together?" Yang asked, and I got the feeling it'd be rude to keep staring out into the trees. I would've continued to do so too, just to spite her, if it weren't for it possibly making this pointless conversation last even longer.

With that in mind, I turned back and addressed the two before me.

"Four years," I answered. Ano and I have been 'friends' for four years. We technically met a few years before that, but she never really became much of an interest in my mind until my father's life was taken. She was the only other person that seemed capable of filling the void left behind by both my parents.

And she's been there ever since. She's been my clever associate and my only friend for a while now.

"Well, I'd say longer than that. But it's around that time." Ano agreed.

"Sheesh, you two have been together for that long? I don't think I've ever known anyone whose romantic relationships lasted longer than two." Yang breathed out steadily in a form of obscure amazement.

Wait, what did she just say?

"I know, it's pretty impressive." Ano replied, "We have no quarrels or anything, we get along well and we seem to complement each other's personality nicely."

Ano, what are you…? Please tell me you're not actually…

"Aww," Ruby dawwed, if that's even a term. I suppose she's the only one here, though, that it would actually make sense for, "That's so cute. I don't really think I'm ready for something like that."

"Of course you are sis! They just have to go through me first, you know, a little one on one time to see if they're right for you." Yang proclaimed with a quirked smirk and a lighthearted voice.

"Yaaaang, I told you before. I'm not looking for anyone at all! I just want to meet people for their weapons," Ruby paused with a pout and lowered her voice, "And maybe even make some friends."

Yang pet her sister on the back and ruffled her hair softly, "Friends come easy. But I'm still putting them through my judgment system to see if they're quality enough to stick around."

Ano laughed lightly, "You two have a bond of your own as well. Are you two sisters by blood or by relation?"

"Relation." Yang said simply, "It was a bit of a weird process."

"She's not wrong." Ruby agreed with a sheepish grin.

"Hmm, well, in any case, a family is still a family. Blood or not, the bonds are still there and can only grow stronger." Ano stated, taking her own moment to ruffle Ruby's hair.

It confused me why she found it necessary to do that.

Ruby took a moment to fix her disheveled hair with a pout and turned a silver gaze upward toward me, no doubt wondering if I wasn't much of a talker.

On the contrary, I'd gladly put someone in their place if they questioned my ability.

"Niro, was it?" Yang inquired.

You either forgot my name already and are proving the stereotypical idiocy behind blondes, or your lack of social skills are so abysmal that you couldn't think of anything else to get my attention. In any case, the fact of the matter was that she was talking to me.

Something I was hoping to avoid. I already knew how it was going to end.

"Niro Ezdeil." I said. It was easier just to get that out there than to have her question it later. In a way, I guess it was a fair trade due to the presentation of their names from earlier.

Yang hummed for a moment, acknowledging the words I spoke before speaking herself, "I saw you on the airship on the way over here. You seemed like you've been here before, mind showing us around if you already know the place?"

"What gave you that idea?" I asked.

"You sorta gave off a feeling of ease, almost like you were completely calm despite going somewhere you've never been before," Ruby spoke up, supporting her sister's claim.

I could only shake my head.

"Niro's just like that all the time." Ano explained for me, "He keeps a calm head most of the time, but you aren't wrong about him already knowing where everything is. Despite this being the first time he's ever set foot on Beacon's grounds before, he already knows it as thoroughly as his home town."

"Wait, how does that make sense? Did you study a bunch of maps or something?" Yang asked.

"Something like that." I sighed. I really didn't want this conversation to continue. But, I had the feeling that it was… and the only way out of it would be to turn them down and walk away. They can get their own tour guide.

"Where's the fun in revealing all our dirty little tricks right off the bat? I think we have a right to hold our cards until the end." Ano stated with an easy grin, something she was way too trademark at displaying.

"Good point." Yang nodded, getting a nod out of her sister as well.

I sensed another presence approaching. They didn't have aura… but they held a strong presence nonetheless. I recognized them immediately as well, and something told me Ruby and Yang would too once they turned around.

He vomited on Yang's shoes, after all.

"Hey, guys! Uh, I…" The guy paused, rubbing his neck sheepishly, "I don't suppose you know where the Ballroom is, right?"

"Oh, hey Jaune!" Ruby whirled around faster and more comfortably than I thought capable of her. Where'd the shy girl go? "I'm not really too sure where it is either, but it's where we need to go to settle down for the night."

"Yup, we were just about to ask for directions as well!" Yang chipped in, turning to address the aforementioned 'vomit boy' from earlier, "In fact, now that you're here. They can probably show us all around campus if we-"

Her lilac glance over her shoulder proved two things.

One, she was easily distracted.

And two… she had no extra sense about her to know that we were already long gone and out of sight.

"…asked them." Yang's voice grew softer as I turned my attention elsewhere, letting my senses have their rest.

* * *

 **Originally, I was going to have Yang get pissed and throw a punch at Niro, then display some of his immense power. But, I decided to play the passive card for now. Trust me, this way's better.**

 **Now that Yang and Ruby have stable images of Niro and Ano, it'll make the 'hate' card I'll pull up later on either more impactful or better fitted for the long run given their first impressions.**

 **Well, in any case, it'll be Niro who'd be hated. Everyone loves Ano.**

 **Special acknowledgment if anyone can guess exactly what Niro's semblance is before I reveal it. I've already basically revealed it through thoughts and obvious actions, but it's still obscure enough for it not to be very clear cut for you.**

 **Not yet, anyway. So, anyone who has a guess, feel free to throw it out there. Who knows, you might be right.**

 **Or, you could be horribly wrong and inspire a new semblance to be created. It's a win-win if you think about it. My friend and I created a semblance that generated and launched kittens from one's palms at varying velocities after all.**

 **You can at least try with this one XD.**

 **Chapters will remain in a sweet zone of 3-7k words, depending on the events transpiring.**

 **For now,** _ **Favorite**_ **and** _ **Follow**_ **.**

 **I look forward to seeing** _ **REVIEWS**_ **for this. You'll be introduced to a LOT of concepts of mine. Feel free to give me your thoughts.**

 **Cya XP**


	3. Pawn

Rogue Huntsman

Pawn

«»

The sleepover was as to be expected. Throw forty incoming students into a room to gather and sleep with one another, you'd fully expect them to get along, find their groups and their fancies, and form bonds before the big day.

What a pipe dream.

Like any other non-substantial inaccessibly non-intelligent gathering for a school dance, this wasn't that far off from that premise, the kids were all as awkward as ever.

Sure, two or three of them seemed to find themselves in minor clusters of groups at a piece. But more or less, this was the first day for most of these aspiring misfortunate souls. It was unlikely any one of them could've already made a good friend.

If anything, that'll change drastically come initiation and the assignment of teams and partners. Then become meaningless by the end of it.

It's just biding your time up until then. The odds are unfeasibly skewed, it'd take a miracle to actually meet up with your 'to be partners' in a setting like this.

Fate would have to be playing a pretty stacked deck for that to happen.

At least, not unless you already knew how this was going to likely work out. And as Ano and I thought, things were as linear as they could get.

37 dimwits with aura and a blonde sack of uselessness stood in a line atop a cliff. Sounds like a story for a summer vacation gone wrong, or, a nightmare would be more accurate. Either way, Ano and I seemed to be the only calm people here.

We're the only ones actually acutely aware of the priming, almost comically large, springs beneath the panels we had all somehow found ourselves on. I don't know if the headmaster was trying to be creative or just blatantly obvious, either way, I wasn't having any part of it.

"Each of you will be given teammate," Glynda Goodwitch spoke, Ozpin's left-hand woman. Why? Because his right-hand man seemed to solely be his coffee mug, "Today."

Someone groaned. Weren't they at least smart enough to realize this by now?

"These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon. So, it is in your best interest if you paired with someone with whom you can work well." Ozpin, the headmaster of Beacon Academy, spoke soon after. Cryptically, methodically, simply. The man I needed to prove myself to. "That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years."

"What?!"

Ruby, don't make me hate you too… I despise enough people already.

Ignoring the comments, like he should, Ozpin continued, "After you've partnered up, make your way to the northern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path-"

That was all I needed to hear.

With the echo of a solemn bird in the distance and the mechanical squeak of metal beneath my boot, I stepped off my panel and walked forward.

"Mister Ezdeil, where do you think you're going?" Glynda asked from somewhere to my left. I positioned myself at the end for a reason. It gave me more than enough distance between authority and myself to do what I wanted.

"Walking." My voice was low, uncaring, and short.

"You would be at a disadvantage, young man." Ozpin said, "These catapults launch you eighty meters into the forest if you do nothing. If you have a flight strategy, the wind will carry you much further than that. Do you not wish to use an advantage like that?"

"I don't need one." This was growing annoying.

"Mister Ezdeil, pleas-"

"Glynda, let him be," Ozpin held up his hand as I felt his eyes, and everyone else's, on me, "No student in the past has done what he's done just now. I believe we should let him go."

"But-"

I approached the ledge as the woman puffed out a seemingly silent breath, something I heard loud and clear. I tuned out the mumbling coming from the students behind me, tuned out the sound of grass crunching beneath my feet, and simply turned my attention to the feeling of the wind pulling at my coat.

Then with quiet absolution, I stepped off the edge of the cliff and made my plummeting decent. I'll find Ano later.

A decent landing wasn't needed. My legs covered themselves in a shining lime green aura as they slammed into the ground of the forest, rupturing its dirt and its roots as I impacted it with a solid dull shockwave.

Broken air dispersed as soon as it was sent out, and the overwhelming shine in my legs diminished when I stepped out of the small crater in the forest floor. My glove crackled and sparked, shattering visually in energy and light as I flexed my fingers and pulled at its fabric against my skin.

A flow poured over me, my aura rushing through my being and down my right arm, gathering beneath my glove as I walked through the forest ahead of me.

390 billion trees dotted the surface of the island of Vale. Too many to count for the average human, too little to count for the average immortal, I was neither. So, where did that leave me?

The answer didn't matter. I was heading north, through the trees and the brush of the forest, to find the pitiful display the faculty of Beacon Academy decided to use to try to be clever in pairing teams together by random chance.

Random chance… heh… imagine what they'd think, if a single kid had the brains about him to make the connection of how one will get teamed up. They probably expect the majority to simply be honest in their decision, to take part in their little game.

I could already feel them, small pieces of gold and black. They resided on pedestals of stone in a courtyard of rock and ruin. 807 Grimm wandered around in the immediate vicinity of the first couple miles of Beacon's grounds, 301 of them were close enough to draw aggro in varying degrees.

They didn't matter.

Green light emitted from my fingerless glove, sparking and snapping into the air as I flexed my fingers again. A culmination of aura collected in the space encompassed by my palm, fluctuating as I dragged it up in front of me.

Glowing lime green streaked like starlight, despite the subtlest of movements, as my manifestation of aura reflected the bouncing sun around it and solidified itself in a cluster of molten mass hovering around my fingertips. I took my other hand and grabbed hold of my shining aura.

I pulled it taught, running out an immense array of glimmering strands of light as I manipulated it into nearly invisibly thin wires of my own aura. Then like lambent flames, they swirled forward. Almost like glittering glass.

Only, sharper and unequivocally stronger.

I had thirty seconds before the first students began launching.

The wires of my aura wrapped tightly around the high branches of the trees in front of me, in the near distance and slightly beyond that. Their green lights wound rapidly around the most suitable of limbs before I turned my palm around and pulled, tugging on the strings as I dug my heels into the dirt.

Aura surged into the ground as I pulled and reeled in my strands, watching as the trees before me began to tug inward and tensely bend in high amounts of resistance.

Perfect.

I knew exactly where I was going.

A smirk tugged at my lips as I pulled the trees to their near breaking points, nearly ripping them from their roots, then released all resistance my legs had with the ground beneath them. And just like that, the trees surged forward like whips into the sky as they slung me above the forest canopy.

My aura strands are as physical as solid wires, with the highest tensile strength ever discovered alongside the incredible vastness of their imaginative lengths and uses.

They were nigh unbreakable.

And so was I.

I didn't look back as I sailed through the air, over the trees and quickly through the sky in front of me. A pitiful spring couldn't give you the inertia nor even hope to get close to reaching the velocity capped by 14 trees bending at their trunks.

Not a chance.

It was because of this that I knew no one here could hope to ever become a huntsman or huntress of integrity. When you're given a tool to use that's not suitable for the job, why would you even use it? If the hammer's broken and the anvil's soft, they hold no greater purpose than a straw trying to cut cold cheese.

Most supposed intellectuals would try to make use of what they have. Create new ways to use what's broken for new purposes and alternative goals.

They act like time is on their side.

We only have 100 years to live, 33% of that is spent unconscious in a state of slumber. The rest of the world widdles away in trying to find cures to illnesses and creating new means of travel. They spend their years cultivating new ways to use Dust and its elements, forge new weapons and tools, tend to children and train them to become fighters.

It all doesn't matter… if humanity dies off in the next millennia.

Society is declining, and so is our survivability rate.

Grimm fester in the darkest reaches of the world. Yet, we don't have the guts to so much as step foot into their territory and make the discoveries that really matter. No one places the priority on the threat that'll kill us all in the end.

This is why I can't stand the world as it is. If it can't see that… then let it burn.

I clocked in at 651 miles per hour, aura shield blazing in front of me as its reflective light continuously shredded itself in the rushing wind. 116 miles per hour beneath the speed needed to break the sound barrier.

And in the next four seconds, I landed dead center in a half-circle of chess pieces. All of them rocked in their places, some pedestals chipping and cracking, but the heavy objects seemed to remain strong as I stepped up and let the aura recede from my legs.

"Chess pieces, of course," I muttered, watching the light gleam off of their stabilizing surfaces before they finally came to a rest.

Ozpin was an old, clever man. He knew manipulation and taught those under him how to manipulate others. He has society's best interests at heart yet plays his own dangerous games with its pieces. His life was a board game, his choices a game of risk, yet he strategizes to prevent as much bloodshed as possible.

His adversary is less merciful.

To what, dear Ozpin, do you play against? Two sides of a coin can't make a decision without clashing, so which opposite entity out there is the enemy you so wittingly face in a game of strategy?

The answer doesn't matter, even for my own amusement.

Rooks, knights, bishops, the king, the queen… and pawns… all in two colors.

"Smart enough not to duplicate the king and the queen. Good." I felt a bit relieved that he didn't take that step of idiocy. If he wanted these chess pieces to be genuine, then there can only ever be one of each. Which meant that the King undoubtedly paired with the Queen.

And, likewise for the rest. Twins paired with twins.

Only a self-centered prick grabbed the power pieces. Strategies that revolve around the queen and her disciples were cowardly and tactless. Rushing a sole unit into battle with power beyond measure yet could so easily be trapped and slain was simple.

Bishops were linear, never falling from their paths of righteousness or so much as straying from their line of duty. How gutless.

The rooks were the worst. They were headstrong and charged the front lines, burrowing through all that clashed their armor, yet had no defense on their sides. For all their strength and all their brawn, even a pawn can kill them if the angle was right.

Knights at least had the potential to be unique. They took leaps and bounds to reposition and lock down locations the enemy couldn't even dream of. Yet, oh so easily can they be taken… their lances are deadly to those in their path. Only to break when a single unit slips into their guard and pulls them from their powerful mount.

That left the stubby pawn. A unit in mass quantity built to be used and discarded like that of a tissue on a musky spring day. You give the fellow a knife and just watch as he runs in and opens a few doors, only to be slaughtered during the picking of the third. He was the outlier. They were the sacrificial front line.

Yet, they were the strongest pieces of the entire game.

If used right.

I flicked a black pawn into my gloved hand, flipping it to land softly into my grasp as I gazed down at it. It stared back at me as if it meant something beyond its fabrication, but that was all it'll ever be used for. A simple game limited by rules and routine.

I hated all it stood for.

But I despised something else more.

Green light surged through me and ruptured beneath the pawn in my hand. It shook and rattled, writhing atop and soon within a brightening culmination of my aura in mere fractions of a second…

Before I turned around, drew it back, wound up, and sent the sorry piece of metal so fast into the air that it disappeared in a flash of green and a shockwave of bursting air.

With that done, I patted my hands down then grabbed the last remaining black pawn. I tossed it slightly into the air before snatching it and slipping it into my pocket.

Teams, huh?

I'm here for one thing and one thing only. Working on a team was not part of my agenda.

* * *

Ozpin stood atop the cliff overlooking the Emerald Forest. His coffee mug sifted steam past his face as he held it close to his lips, thin brown eyes observing the sea of leaves before him. His tousled silver hair drifted lightly in the wind as he took another sip of his brew.

His… secret brew.

His clothes rattled against the high winds at the cliff's edge, rushing air pulling at his dark green pants and unzipped black suit. The tails whipped back and revealed his buttoned vest and green shirt beneath, tossing and turning in waves of fabric within his wake.

Black trouser shoes shifted slightly as he glanced to his side, sensing the blonde deputy approaching. The cowl around his neck threatened to come undone, but the cross pin clasping it still stayed as strong as his ever enduring resolve.

"He seems to have already reached the relics." She spoke, tablet and holographic screen glowing and nestled in her arms.

"Is that so?"

The middle-aged woman's curl of hair whipped in the wind, but her bun more or less remained the same. The white long-sleeved shirt she adorned clung to her skin, its pleated top and keyhole neckline only feeling all the more snug in the high pressure of air. The cuffs of it flared in pleats at the wrists.

Ozpin always wondered how those didn't get in the way of her tasks.

He dared not to look at her black high-waisted pencil skirt, less the bronze buttons suddenly come undone and fully reveal the black-brown stockings beneath.

She wore black boots with brown heels, and trailing behind her was a cape with a purple interior and black exterior, stylized and cut to render flames and arrows at the ends.

"Our fastest known record for reaching the relics was twenty-nine minutes, and that was by sheer luck that the student managed to travel in a straight line and encounter no Grimm resistance," Glynda commented, fixing her thin ovular glasses on her nose as she cast her gaze to the headmaster.

"Records are made to be broken, Glynda. It was only a matter of time." Ozpin responded, eyes turning to fix themselves on the forest once again.

"Broken, yes. But only in small margins," Glynda pulled the tablet against her chest as she let out a long sigh, "Mister Ezdeil broke the previous record by a rather large margin. He has set a new one for just under two minutes."

Ozpin hummed and pressed his pristine white mug to his lips, "I guess walking worked out for the young man."

"It not only worked out, but I believe the catapult's capacity for distance would've only extended his time and slowed him down," Glynda added, brushing a stray lock of golden hair out of her face.

"In any case, he's-"

A glint of light flashed in the sky.

Ozpin had a split second to react as he leaned his head to the side, a small black pawn rocketing through the space in front of him as it impacted the ground behind him. The object shattered his mug into fragments, glass cutting his cheek in the stale wind as his coffee spilled into the grass below.

"O-ozpin?! Are you-?"

"Fine," Ozpin answered curtly, reaching a few fingers up to touch the quickly healing gash in his sharp cheek.

Kicked up dirt settled behind the duo as Glynda turned to regard the projectile that split the clouds, she immediately recognized it as one of the relics.

Her eyes narrowed as she turned her attention to the tablet in her grasp again, "That young man should learn discipline. I'll-"

"That was a damn good shot," Ozpin's comment stirred her attention, and she quickly cast an inquisitive glance to her headmaster.

"Excuse me?" Her voice was as disbelieving as her face, yet her tone held itself in the wind.

Ozpin didn't answer her. How could he? He had just witnessed something he hadn't laid his eyes on… in a long time.

* * *

I sat atop the stone ruins where the relics were placed. Lying down on top of its highest structure as I tossed the second black pawn into the air in front of me. I let it spin, topple, and twirl… before watching as gravity caught up to it and forced it back down into my waiting hand.

Only for me to do it again.

I was bored.

My partner wasn't as fast as me, but she wasn't slow either. I knew her kind. She'd be here first out of the majority, and if our plan holds true, then she'll reach me ahead of all other initiates and become my official partner in this game of chess that we seem to be playing.

"Well, you look comfortable." A voice came from my left, prompting me to roll my head slightly to see the hard black boots and long slender legs of Ano.

She got up here rather fast, and quietly…

"I was, though now that you're here," I sat myself up and placed a palm against the stone beneath me, supporting myself as I glanced out across the tree lines.

"Actually, change of plans," Ano chirped in a light voice, sitting down closely at my side as she kicked her legs over the edge, "Instead of heading back right away, why don't we enjoy the show? I'm sure you already sense what's going on out there."

Her words carried a shrill shriek in the distance, bristling the trees in the dense forest and unleashing a flurry of black birds into the sky.

"I am well aware," I said with a sigh, kicking my legs over the edge soon after and resting my cheek in my palm, "Why must we stay and watch? With any luck, they'll realize this profession is a death wish and quit."

Ano's light laugh didn't draw my interest, but it drew my attention, "They're aspiring young adolescents looking to impress each other with their unfaltering skills. I'm sure there will be something that happens that'll be of mild interest to you."

She just wants people to get to know me… rather than just know _of_ me.

"So be it," I groaned a bit, but I didn't turn down the idea of watching kids strive to keep their heads in a Grimm infested forest. Literally.

Ano gave a cheeky smile and clapped her hands together, stretching them over her head as we waited for something interesting to happen.

And something did.

* * *

 **Two OCs will be presented to you in the next chapter. You'll recognize them both if you read my current story.**

 **Anyway, that was a thing. Despite the seriousness that this story seems to be exuding, it will be riddled with humor and concepts of my own design. With, as you've undoubtedly realized by now, philosophical moments of thought.**

 **Niro's just** _ **that**_ **kind of guy.**

 **In any case, not much Ano in this one, but it delved a bit into Niro's semblance and weapon. Well, technically I've been delving into his semblance from chapter one, but one of the uses of his weapon was revealed in this one.**

 **A guest guessed (heh, didn't mean to do that but I'm leaving it in that order) that Niro might have aura manipulation.**

 **Of course, he has aura manipulation. Every hunter has it. How do you think they use their aura? Niro's manipulation is simply extended through his weapon, which acts as a catalyst, to solidify it into the air in physical form.**

 **His aura manipulation is enhanced greatly by his semblance, though.**

 **Which has still not been guessed nor directly revealed. Despite the consistent presence of it. He's been using it the whole time, after all.**

 **Chapters will remain in a sweet zone of 3-7k words, depending on the events transpiring.**

 **For now,** _ **Favorite**_ **and** _ **Follow**_ **.**

 **I look forward to seeing** _ **REVIEWS**_ **for this. You'll be introduced to a LOT of concepts of mine. Feel free to give me your thoughts.**

 **Cya XP**


	4. Condescension

Rogue Huntsman

Condescension

«»

I can't begin to describe how utterly stupid these last few sequential events seemed to be. As if pitiful Lady Luck had taken up her hat and left, leaving behind eight teens and a useless blonde meat shield.

His skills were as sharp as his looks.

Nonexistent.

"Hey! Are you just going sit up there and watch?! We're getting attacked!" Someone yelled. She was the blonde from before, yanking large feathers from the ground as she javelin tossed them back into the sky.

Up at the nuisances with wings.

"I'm sure you have it handled!" Ano called back down with a supportive smile and a thumbs up.

"I don't think this is handled…" The boy with the pink stripe commented stoically, his fanged weapons doing next to no damage to the nevermores in the air.

"Nope, not handled! Definitely not handled!" Ruby frantically yelled, dashing in a red blur across the field below to clang harshly against the skull of the deathstalker a different redhead pulled aggro from.

"Come on! Can't you do anything? Aren't you, like, condescending because you're strong or something?!" Yang yelled up again.

Please stop talking.

"No, I think he's just like that." Ano waved off, dismissing the comment before turning her gaze to a nearby explosion, "Oh, would you look at that. There's a cute kitten out there too. Is she lost?"

"You can only get lost if you have a destination in mind," I muttered, my cheek resting on the support of my palm, elbow pushing into my leg. This was boring… The worst part of it…

Was that it didn't look like it'll stop anytime soon.

"Yang, I don't think Niro's going to help us…" Ruby came skidding back on her heels, kicking up dirt and grass as her sister plucked her from her carrying momentum. Setting her back down at her side.

"Like hell he won't. We're all supposed to work together out here." Yang cracked her knuckles together as I watched her aura flair up around her, eyes burning a violent crimson as she fixed me with a murderous glare.

How cute.

I turned my gaze away in disinterest, switching it elsewhere within the student fiesta down below. It's almost as if they drew in the entire grimm populous within the immediate vicinity of eight damn miles.

And Ano thinks _I'm_ a grimm magnet…

"You know, I think this is your fault," I felt a soft finger poke my shoulder, the light tap carrying warmth with it that dispersed across my cold skin.

Don't do that.

"Fault by proximity is as much their fault as it is mine. Their mistakes are their own," I sighed, watching as a glint of silver flashed through the air. It swept downward before a pink explosion detonated out of a hammer's impaction with the shell of the scorpion, "Leave me to make my own decisions."

"I don't suppose one of those decisions is helping that little girl down there?" Ano asked, pointing to somewhere else in the rupturing field below.

I looked past the embedded feathers, kicked up dirt, cratered grass, and flailing teenagers with shiny weaponry. A young girl sat leaning against a tree at the forest's edge. She had one leg propped up, the other spanning straight out in front of her, as she clutched the grass between her delicate fingers.

She looked 16.

Ano hummed in my ear and made sure I was looking in her general direction, "Doesn't she look hurt?"

I mumbled an incoherent yes, "Fractured ankle," I deduced, watching the occasional wince flash over the girl's face as the ground quaked beneath her battered leg, "Three ribs cracked, minor bruises along her legs, aura drained to a quarter remaining, and her consciousness is drifting."

"She won't be awake for much longer, so you might as well list the last thing I know you noticed," Ano kicked her legs idly, letting her heels bounce back into the stone beneath our vantage point.

"She's losing blood through a deep gash in her side and multiple puncture wounds in her arms and legs," I replied, another sigh slipping out of clenched teeth as I shifted ever so slightly on the rocky ruins.

"The kids below have their hands full, I doubt they've noticed her. Why don't we do something about it?" Ano asked, plucking the obvious insinuation out of the air and throwing it skillfully my way.

"Her partner will handle it," I replied, my lime green eyes watching as blurry golden-orange irises fell into half lidded struggles. She was fighting to stay awake.

"I don't see anyone near her," Ano pointed out with a chuckle. That loving, humorous, lethal chuckle that she always carried when she was about to bleed a contact dry of information.

When she was about to get what she wanted.

"Then she was weak on her own," I countered, ignoring the argument Ano seemed to be trying to make.

"Everyone's weak at first. Not everyone's as unique as you-"

"Cursed." I corrected.

"Nope," Ano flicked my cheek with a slim finger, a light flash of fire simmering against my flesh before I extinguished it was a shimmer of lime green aura, "You're unique. There isn't anyone else like you in the world. Out there, down with the rest of the students, leaning helplessly against that tree is an injured young girl."

"Faunus girl," I corrected with a grumble, switching cheeks now so I could prevent any future flicks. I quietly rested my other cheek into a new hand as a salvo of deathly feathers fell in clusters across the ground below.

Three of them got bashed aside by Yang, leaving several others to be countered by a glacier ripping out of the ground next to a girl in white.

"She's still a girl, Niro," Ano pointed out.

"By definition, she's a faunus girl. And she has 21 minutes before her aura fully drains and her wounds become lethal," I replied, pinpointing the moment her aura would enter a critically low state. Low enough to shut off all active processes and only preserve what little remains it had left in its reserve.

Aura was safe like that. It kept your vital organs protected with its final remnants of energy, leaving the rest open to the world.

Its dulling properties would seep away, bringing down a world of pain when it abandons your defenses.

"Well…" Ano let out a long exhale, pressing her palms onto the flat stone surface as she leaned back, head turning slightly upward to look at the sky, "If we're going that far. Do you know what kind of faunus she is?"

Her eyes traced the clouds. Where the three nevermores flew.

"Fox-yōkai," I replied as quickly as the question was asked. What kind of neglecting entity would even consider dropping a mythological creature into a world of grimm and humankind? She was brought into this world for the sole reason of gathering attention.

Her very form was sculpted in such a way to be petite and lithe, slipping over curves and soft skin to create the attractiveness every prick with a boner for a heart would fawn over. She was 5'2, bringing her nose to the level of the average person's chest.

Two white fox ears sat atop her head, large and partially matted in blood. Their pristine white fur lay slicked back, weighed down by the life essence of its owner as they twitched and fluttered in the fleeting wind.

Three white fox tails coiled around her waist. They were doing everything they could to resist moving. Extensive bruising and minor scratches littered their surfaces beneath the soft fur.

Her black leggings clung to her, splits in its cloth running with blood as a white aura tried everything to close those wounds back up. A pair of black combat boots shifted in mild agonizing movements on the ground, white laces dripping with small traces of red.

The scratches in her thin light blue sweater whipped in the beating wind, its looseness leaving a wide opening at its neck to reveal some of her pale shoulders. The thin sweater showed off the thin straps of her white tank-top nestled near her collar bones.

Her breathing was slowing now.

I felt each of her hot breaths crash into a white scarf her chin was softly settled inside, wrapped into a thin bundle around her neck as her long frost-white hair cascaded behind it.

"She's quite rare," Ano commented again, "I don't think I've seen too many fox-yōkai before, but I know an adorable kitsune when I see one."

"Rarity is only as precious as the beholder making it out to be," I responded harshly, knowing my tone held an icy tinge to it, "She's not my problem. This is Remnant, people die all the time."

"People die because no one's there to protect them in their time of need," Ano retaliated with a smile, brushing a lock of raven hair behind her ear as she glanced at me.

I looked away.

"You're not proving any points-"

"WATCH OUT!"

A shrill scream and a violent whistle split the air and ruptured the particles around me, tearing into my ears and my vision. The piercing tip of a large feather flashed before my eyes as a sudden pain ripped through my chest, slicing through sinew and muscle before plunging through my lung and jamming itself into the stone behind me.

Blood spewed as my heart lurched, the end of the feather still swinging back and forth as I cast my gaze above the trees.

Where is that asshole…?

Smoldering red eyes cast a heart-wrenching gaze into my soul, large beak squawking in mocking triumph as it flapped its wings and hovered. It was reveling in my pain, shaking its feathers as if stricken with glory and bloodlust.

"Oh my god… N-Niro?!" Ruby's voice squealed from below.

"D-don't look, sis… he's…" Yang's voice cut in now too, "H-he'll be fine."

Quiet. Just… be quiet.

I narrowed my gaze, growling into my enclosed throat as a ruthless presence washed over me. An immense rush of energy flooded into the air, burning in invisible wisps of flame and mist as I bore a hole into the nevermore's skull with my vision alone.

"Nevermores should know their place in this world," I spoke lowly, a calmness present in my voice that should've been replaced with panic. I reached up and gripped my fingers around the sharp feather embedded into my chest, its hard and razor sharp edges cutting into my hand as I pulled it slowly forward.

Blood covered every inch removed, smothering the feather's length as I yanked the rest of it from my chest with a nasty squelch. Stones shattered from where it was once embedded as I stood up, the hole in my chest closing itself as I felt my respiratory systems restore.

"Nevermores were meant to fly for one reason," I growled, whipping the feather to the side and splattering blood across the ruins to my right, "And one reason only."

Green aura cracked out of my fingerless glove, shattering across the feather as it glowed in streaking cracks of shining lime green light.

"The creator gave you wings," I paused as I took a step back, "They gave you flight," My grip tightened around the feather in my hand, blood slowly dripping to the stone at my feet, "You can fly… so you can fall. Torn out of the sky like the winged demons you were born to be."

The bird flapping in the sky squawked again as I spoke. Its companions flew around it, watching me with evenly leveled stares as I drew back the feather in my grasp.

Die.

I lunged the feather forward, piercing the barrier of air in an instant that sent a rupturing shockwave out around me. The black feather streaked in a light only my aura could provide, traveling at a speed no nevermore could even hope to achieve, as the projectile closed the distance between lime green and smoldering red in a fraction of a second.

All sound in the battlefield seemed to stop as the nevermore's head rocked back in a backward whiplash, wings suddenly going still as the feather shot through its skull and exited the back.

Then it fell from the sky in silent bewilderment… plummeting in a soft fall before crashing into the opening below.

Its dull thud more apparent than a bomb in a barren desert.

"I-it…" Ruby squeaked, watching the lifeless corpse of the bird begin to degrade back into the clutches of its sinister origins.

"…it's dead," Yang spoke instead.

"Uhh… hey, guys?! I think the other two are getting angry…" The other blonde shouted out, just before the wind of the forest began to kick up and the shrill shrieks of the nevermores filled the sky.

"I don't suppose we can ask for your assistance now, friend?" Ren asked me with that glimmer of hope I learned to shred at a moment's notice.

My gaze silently shifted from the smoldering corpse of my kill to the girl, fallen unconscious against the tree in the distance.

Damn it…

Ano smiled.

Damn you Ano…

Ren's smile began to form.

…damn it all.

I dropped off the vantage point Ano and I had been resting on, crushing the ground beneath my boots as I walked forward. The pillars and pedestals around me shattered, getting them out of my way as I brushed past the combatants dispersed across the field of grass and embedded feathers.

16 minutes… 13% aura capacity… Death imminent.

The young fox-yōkai wasn't going to survive this initiation.

Death. I scoffed at the word. Death didn't touch grimm like the world wished it did. Grimm are far too privileged to experience such an end.

Whatever. If the world couldn't see that they were still coming back, after all these ages of fighting this monstrous incursion, then I'll take pleasure in putting them down myself.

Time to put an end to this.

"You," My voice carried a calm steel edge, my eyes switching to the raven-haired girl standing slightly off to the side.

Her amber eyes widened for a moment, black bow fluttering in the rushing winds from the soon to be rampaging nevermores above. The clash of steel and ice split that very air, cluttering the atmosphere again from the sound of battle.

"Me?" The girl asked, her hands holding her elbows in a reserved crossed state at the front of her chest.

"Go stop that girl's bleeding. You're useless in this kind of fight," I said, nodding toward the tree line and the slumped form of the faunus in white.

"Hey, whoa! My partner's not useless!" A fist careened into my senses from the side, Yang's blazing aura firing up again as the gears in her golden gauntlet shifted.

Loud. Predictable. Weak.

I reached up and glanced her punch across my forearm, letting all the strength behind her strike blow past my head as I kept my stare leveled into the golden irises of the girl in front of me.

"Go."

"Yang, it's alright. This isn't really my matchup anyway." She spoke quietly, backing away from the group as she turned around.

Don't try to justify it.

"But-"

Yang's retaliation was cut short as the cat-faunus took off a moment later. She ran straight for the girl I needed her to tend to. That was the first step. It stalled that timer for long enough to handle the rest of the creatures here.

"Names," I took my arm away from Yang's and turned my gaze to the few who stood around me, "Now."

I doubted they could follow a simple order without their own name being called with it. Integrity was lacking in youth, these days.

I wasn't going to be giving them extensive orders, either. It'll be just one.

Yang withdrew her fist, the sound of a careening dust flair impacting the ruins in the background sounding out as she bit her lip in agitation. It was evident now…

She was starting to drop whatever fantasized image she had of me from the beginning.

Good.

"Nooorrrra! And this is my partner, Ren!" A bubbly voice, the kind you wanted to drill holes into and put six feet under, hollered out from off to my side.

I turned only to regard her face for only a moment before looking toward the next person.

"T-the name's Jaune," The useless stack of wasted carbon in white crested armor spoke, but his unlocked aura slammed into me before his voice could reach my ears.

When did he…?

"Pyrrha, my partner, is off fighting that deathstalker over there with Weiss," Jaune said, stepping over and sending a glance down the field. The two girls in the background fought to keep a deathstalker engaged in a dance of misery and pain.

A glacial spike had ruptured its soft underside, cracking through the shell of its back as it scurried and swiped in its pinned place.

At least someone's a little competent with their semblance.

"That was my partner you just disregarded, by the way. Her name's Blake," Yang spoke up, "If you even cared."

"I didn't," I replied evenly, flicking my gaze past Ruby. She flinched slightly, silver eyes avoiding my own before I walked past her.

Yang growled, crimson eyes shining, " _What_ do you want us to do?" She asked, gritting her teeth with anger so prominent it burned the air hotter than her fire was chemically capable of.

"Set the forest on fire," I answered simply, "It'll flush out the grimm and burn all that remain to ash."

"That's crazy!" Yang threw her hands to her sides, staring at me with a mixture of rage and disbelief.

"It's efficient," I responded simply, "The fire won't spread far. We'll be able to clear out this immediate area with ease, slaughtering whatever grimm that shamble out of the blazing trees. Weiss is more than capable of dousing the flames when we're done."

"How do you know she'll be able to?" Ruby asked quietly, staring at the ground between her feet.

"Because if she can't, then she's as incompetent as the rest of you," I replied, "She has enough aura and enough dust to disperse a wide expanse of airborne ice. It'll collect in the air like mist. I'll handle the rest."

"And we're just supposed to _trust_ you? After the way you've been acting?" Yang growled, her knuckles white.

"I wouldn't go so far as to trust him," A new, lighter, warmer, voice spoke up from behind me. Then the soft crunch of grass quietly sounded out with the new arrival of my own partner, "But you can trust his word. He may be cruel and harsh, but he's right more times than wrong. You can believe that." Ano spoke, placing a soothing hand on Yang's shoulder and calming her down.

"Ano, you can't expect me to-"

"No one expects anything of you," Ano was quick to silence Yang, tapping her lightly on the nose, "I'll handle the fire, honey. You can handle another task."

"You shouldn't be dragging yourself into this mess," I fixed my partner with a hardened stare, but she simply brushed it off.

"And miss out on the action? Where's the fun in that?" The thief asked with a tip of her cowboy hat, running her fingers along the rim of it as it burned orange.

"Whatever. Burn the whole damn forest to the ground. I'm going to go protect my _partner_ from grimm threats," Yang spoke in defiance, having enough of my words as she began trudging across the grass, "Rubes, come on."

Ruby's eyes snapped up to her sister, before casting a worried glance back to her partner on the field, "Sorry Yang, but I think I'll stay and help Weiss," Her gaze then fell back onto me as I felt Yang's presence stay for a moment… before getting further away. She gave me a meek smile, "We don't necessarily have to kill all the grimm in the area. Just all the ones that matter, that way we can make it back to Beacon."

"Your naivety will get you killed," I said, coldness bristling my words again, "You're thinking short term. We'll be taking a chunk out of this area's grimm population that'll take time to refill. We'll be doing the school a favor."

"By burning down half the Emerald Forest?" Jaune asked, sounding like it was a bad thing.

It was. But it was a bad thing for a good reason.

"Not anymore now that Yang's not going to be the one doing the burning," I flexed my hand for a moment, cracking the energy in my glove as I looked up, watching as twin salvos shot into the ground all around us.

A solid burst of aura erupted from my hand after I raised it into the air, a sphere of light spanning out around us in a momentary solidified burst, knocking away several projectiles with its timed emission.

"Let's just say that I specialize in fire, Jaune," Ano walked up to my side and placed her hands on her waist, "Only the ground will be burning. It'll be enough to flush out the grimm littering the forest floor."

"And then what?" Ren was the one to ask this time.

"They'll be corralled into this opening. We'll kill them here," I answered, sending out another deflecting burst as another salvo rained down on us.

"Wouldn't that just make them crazier and more bunched up?" Nora's voice piped in.

I was hoping she'd stay quiet.

"Yeah, how do you expect us to fight an entire legion of grimm?" Jaune tacked on.

"It'll put us all in danger if we do this," Ruby mentioned as well.

"You guys don't get it," I sent another radial burst out, this one wider and much more expansive as my aura surged within me, "This is your life now. You're being bred to become grimm slaughtering machines. The earlier you start, the less of a pipe dream you'll be convincing yourself about for life after the Academy."

"He's not wrong, but don't give up on your own dreams as well. We can't have you cuties giving up on hoping for a better life like mister lean, mean, and pessimistic over here," Ano commented with a light chuckle.

I'd be rich if I had a five lien coin for every time Ano brought comfort to a tense situation.

"…I guess we could give it a try," Ruby spoke quietly, her small form jumping every time the sudden sound of ten or twenty feathers struck the walls of my bursts of aura.

"What if it goes wrong?" Jaune scratched the back of his head, his eyes adverting.

"I'm sure we have a fighting chance," Ren came up to Jaune's side and rested a hand on his shoulder, "Niro may be condescending, but he seems to have every reason to be that way. You saw what he did and what happened to him."

Jaune's unsure eyes soon met Ren's, before his shoulders slumped and he grazed the grass at his feet with the shining tip of his sword, "Fine. If we have to clear them out… then we'll clear them out."

"Good," I nodded, deflecting several more feathers before the nevermores seemed to give up and begin to dive, switching tactics to something much more direct… and all the more suicidal, "Then let's get started."

* * *

 **I apologize for the lack of action. The combat is going to be interesting to write for this story, which is why I cut it off there. It'll be a bit of a struggle due to how Niro thinks, so I might just switch it over to third person during that matter.**

 **Or even another person's perspective altogether.**

 **We'll see. That'll be next chapter.**

 **It was more realistic for Yang to storm off like that after facing something as conflicting as Niro and his order. He also recognizes that Blake has experience in the field of self-applied medication, which suggests some aptitude in applying medical help to the faunus at the tree line.**

 **She's a little hurt, after all. Poor girl.**

 **I hope she gets better. I also wonder who her partner is. Hmm…**

 **For now,** _ **Favorite**_ **and** _ **Follow**_ **.**

 **I look forward to seeing** _ **REVIEWS**_ **for this. You'll be introduced to a LOT of concepts of mine. Feel free to give me your thoughts.**

 **Cya XP**


	5. Slaughter

Rogue Huntsman

Slaughter

«»

Ignorance.

The choice to ignore or the result of intellectual failure. It brings bliss or destruction, pleasure or pain, it exists in every world and devastates each one day by day. Three times this world went to war, never once was that struggle purely against the Grimm incursion.

Idiocy brings both the savior and the executioner. It brings about the end and the beginning.

The world is run by incompetent corruption.

They higher powers seek to control, they bring blood and they create ash, devouring the time the world possesses before spitting it back in the faces of those who need it more. Ignorance comes hand in hand with those who are born to conform.

Those willing to accept society as it is, not as it's supposed to be nor potentially be, but as it exists in this moment… will never survive this coming era of annihilation.

Society will die. Humanity will end. And the Grimm will fester once more.

That was my justification… for making the decision to erase the population of grimm within this immediate area of the Emerald Forest.

That was the _only_ reason why I'm still standing here in this field of blood and feathers.

Jaune cowered behind his shield as he held his sword in a weak grip, he stood at my side. Ruby brandished her scythe in a non-balanced stance with the tip buried in the dirt in front of her. Those were my 'allies' that stood beside me.

My real ally stood with the other two behind me.

Nora stood on the other side of Ano, back facing us as she lifted her polished glorified paperweight into the air and brought it down in a collapsing flourish, contracting its mechanisms and sliding its panels to compact her hammer into a rotating grenade launcher.

Ren pulled out two sharpened green twigs that resembled guns…

I knew his uselessness as much as he did.

"I don't suppose you've swept the area yet for any aura signatures?" Ano asked from behind me, my ears easily picking up her light voice over the diving sounds of angry nevermores.

"No," I replied, I hadn't cared enough to take a moment to find potential casualties.

"Well, whenever you have a moment," I can feel the smirk in Ano's voice, let alone the humor.

I clenched my fist, fingers pressing into thin black fabric covering my palm as I felt my aura surge. Lime green light poured down my arm, pooling in my palm and fingers as I brought my hand up and pulled new aura strands from the cluster of aura hovering in my palm.

7 seconds.

A screech tore through the air, both nevermores banking toward us with beaks angrily snapping at the air in front of them.

Their plan was to take us from opposite side.

It was ignorant in every sense of the word.

I took a step forward, the two at my sides turning their glances toward me as I tore out an array of streaks of light. In a quick flash, I dragged my shining glove through the air as swirling strands of my aura twirled together and weaved in and out of each other, pulling themselves taught into a form of my creation.

A curved, rapidly expanding, single edged blade. Its shining edge reached outward and circled upward slightly at the front, a jagged back edge running down its spine, with a clawed hilt stretching out of the base of the blade itself.

All of it was the solidification of my own aura.

Eight feet of solid, weightless, glowing glass brimming with energy.

6 seconds.

I heard Jaune's boots shuffle for a moment behind me, "Maybe we should-"

"Shut up and do nothing," I cut him off, dragging my blade through the air as I paced forward, "And Ruby?"

"Y-yes?" The young girl squeaked.

"Don't hesitate."

1 second.

The looming nevermore spanned its wings outward, catching the wind in a vast expanse of feathers as it reached its claws out for the skin of my chest.

If only it had the actual capability of being faster than me.

I brought my sword down and lowered my stance, solid boots momentarily digging into the dirt before I kicked off the ground. The entire expanse of the forest floor in a spanning nine-foot circle caved in as I leaped into the air, dirt and stone trailing behind me as the rest dispersed across the field from the sudden impact.

A bright light streaked behind my sword as I slipped through the air, passing inside then leaving the nevermore's guard before it could even blink.

It hadn't even felt the hide of its neck splitting open as my pristine blade passed through it.

Ruby didn't hesitate. Thankfully, her drive and decision to cast aside all second thoughts led her into a dash that soon kicked upward into the air. I felt her bring her scythe around and fire an impact round into Remnant's surface below, propelling her small frame toward the falling avian grimm.

Jaune just stood there, exactly as I told him to.

That just made him a submissive wimp.

The small girl fired another round just before meeting the grimm in the air, sending her into a vicious spin. The glint of her steel disappeared into the gaping slash I left behind in the creature's throat… a tense, resistant pull appearing for only a moment before she severed the grimm's head from its oversized winged body.

Landing first, I impacted the ground in a softer collision than my initial burst. Ruby followed soon after, tumbling to her feet at my side with her scythe in hand.

The dead nevermore landed on a screaming Jaune Arc.

"J-jaune?!" Ruby's eyes widened as she watched a cloud of dirt whip into the air from the settling grimm's body.

"He should've moved," My voice spoke out coldly once again, the tense atmosphere refusing to shift into any new moods as Ren, Nora, and Ano clashed with the second nevermore.

Ruby let out a quiet, almost innocent whimper, "I think he tried to…"

"Then he thinks as slow as he runs," I replied, walking over to the tail of the slumped nevermore and took an iron hold of its feathers. I let my sword fade back into my glove before my hand clasped the tail of the bird, aura brightly flaring from my arm as I lifted and dragged the large corpse from the crushed teen.

Ruby quietly jogged around me as I let go of the grimm's tail, "I-is he… is he hurt?"

"He's not dead, which is unfortunate," I stated dryly, words emphasized by the heavy thump of the nevermore's lower body thudding to the ground, "He shouldn't even be here."

I knew my words held more truth than their initial meaning suggested.

Ruby ignored me for now and made her way over to the large depression in the ground, imprinted from the heavy body of the nevermore.

Jaune's embedded and wheezing form was sprawled out at its center.

And now he probably felt as useless as he looks.

"Are you good?" Ruby asked carefully, meekly standing over his scrawny body as his eyes blinked in blurry pain.

Very slowly, with an annoying amount of struggle, Jaune dug his arm out of the ground at his side and gave Ruby a thumbs up, "Y-yeah… j-just peachy."

He didn't even use his aura. It was currently working away at rebuilding his cracked ribs and a fractured spine, leaving the bruises across his back and legs for last.

"That's good," Ruby sighed, relaxing her shoulders for a moment before quickly looking up to her partner in white. She currently fought at the other end of the field we were in.

"If you can't stand, then stay down. Grimm usually ignore dead things," I spoke down into the minor crater, standing at its upper ridge.

"What?! No one told me this… I would've started playing dead a long time ago…" Jaune muttered, dropping his arm back to his side.

"Uhh, are you sure? I thought grimm eat, well, dead things…" Ruby tried to ask.

Anything can eat anything, little red. But, you're still wrong.

"Grimm don't find pleasure in sustenance. They find sustenance in pleasure. And they take pleasure in tearing you limb from limb," I elaborated, kicking a stone down the slope in front of me before turning around, "It's what they were spawned for."

"Spawned?"

Heat pushed its way through my coat.

I could feel it.

An inferno rose at the center of this bustling field.

The heat felt warm, like a soft spring breeze under a waking sun. I felt pieces of Ruby's cloak burn away as her hair bristled, sensing as she shied away from the heat after the entire tree line lit up in an illumination of bright orange.

It was Anoel.

All shadows lurking between the trees and brush dissolved in the encroaching light, disappearing without a trace as the leaves above blew back then pulled inward toward the strong updraft of hot wind.

Flames swept into the sky.

The silhouette of the second nevermore twitched and sputtered at the center of a rising tornado of fire. Its screeching immortalized within the dancing flames as it craned its neck up and choked on searing air. A scorching wind tore through the entire field, rushing into the trees like raging rapids of a white tempestuous collapse of water.

I felt it crash into Beacon's Cliffside in the far distance, flooding up its face of stone, dirt, and roots, before blowing past the two that stood at the peak of its outcrop.

To me, it was only as warm as the sunrise on a spring's early morning.

Ren and Nora had already run off, seeking some solace from the bristling heat behind the nearest trees of thick wooden spires. Ruby had already dragged Jaune and his glowing chest plate away, yanking him behind her own cover as the nevermore incinerated within its veil of crushing heat.

A strand of fire shot out of the vortex of Anoel's power, brushing over the blades of grass beneath its tail as it crashed into the wounded deathstalker in the background. Its tail was embedded in a now evaporated column of ice…

And its previous two combatants only merely dodging the incoming culmination of flame.

The grimm's core was torn through in an instant, the beast collapsing to the ground and dissolving away now as the heat before me began to decline.

This was Anoel's strength. This was her unrestrained affinity. This was her link to all that lived before her.

This power… it barely warmed the cold surface of my skin.

Our power here is unparalleled… the system can't hope but try to control us within the rules and boundaries of this Beacon Academy.

I'll make a mockery of it all.

Every last one of them.

I'll show them what it means to hold power. To manifest the soul into aura, bringing forth a power derived from the very depths that make you who you are. A power in the culmination of every piece of your soul, collected into a single entity of strength, and transferred into an epitome of a controllable combination of destruction and creation.

I'll show them what it means… to be a huntsman.

I brushed my fingers through the wall of swirling fire, reaching into the bursting inferno with ease as it dwindled away. Wisps of orange fluttered into the air, green grass glistened in the returning winds below, before I turned my eyes to Ano and placed my palm on the hot ground.

My glove pressed into the grass and the dirt, not a single blade blackened or scorched, as a flood of aura passed through my arm and deep into the roots of Remnant's surface.

My eyes sparked with crackling lime green light, dashing the air in front of it as my senses crashed through the ground and rippled outward in a spanning glow of expanding aura. The waves of flashing light tore through the ground in a harmless flood, rushing through the dirt and roots as it climbed every tree it contacted, illuminated every leaf it touched, and registered every atom it passed through.

The rendering was complete in four seconds.

"Two students walk three klicks at your nine o'clock, four within two clicks at your five," I slowly stood up as Ano stood still, hand on her hip, "Five klicks to your eight o'clock is a roaming group of twelve, one klick to your eleven o'clock run four more, and the remaining six are each four klicks away at your two, six, seven, and ten."

"You're missing one," Ano spoke lightly, eyes regarding my form as I brushed my glove off with my other hand.

"The fortieth student died fourteen minutes ago. His body is half a klick to your six," I nodded behind my partner, past Blake, Yang, and the kitsune unconscious against the tree, "That girl's presumable partner."

Ano hummed, her lips pressed into a thin line as she let my words drift through her thoughts, "He deserves a funeral. I'll be sure to avoid that area too."

"Do as you please. Keep the heat in moderation around each of the groups with some temporary barriers, and let's hope they have the brains in them to not touch the visible field," I commented, letting Ano slip down onto one knee and place her soft fingertips into the grass in front of her.

Half a second later, the tips of the blades of green surrounding her glowed like embers in a burning forge.

The pupils in her now dark-green eyes flickered with a golden flame, and the full expanse of her long raven hair shimmered in smoldering shines of gold fire. Her leather jacket fluttered in seams of bristling ember, fire-infused leather and cloth only emblazoning now as the field of embers around her shot outward in an explosion of controlled heat.

No acre of forest within ten kilometers was left untouched… save for the few patches other students resided in.

A new bright light illuminated the forest floor in every direction. The undergrowth and foliage of the Emerald Forest were now blanketed with an ocean of dancing calculated destruction.

Leaves glowed but didn't burn, grass bristled and flickered yet remained full and lush, bushes blazed yet ash never fell, roots pulsed and embered yet never cracked, infernos rose and climbed into the canopies above yet the air remained in smokeless clarity beneath a crystal sky.

The heat was high enough to ignite all that it touched.

And the sound of shambling grimm, crying out in a cacophony of pain and incineration, was loud enough to deafen the sound of your own voice in the bristling winds of the blazing Emerald Forest.

"How long?" I asked, glancing down to my partner as her eyes remained fixed on the ground beneath her fingers.

"I-I can hold it," She shuttered out a tight breath, her aura was slowly draining.

I crouched down in front of her, "How long, Ano?"

Her eyes didn't move, "Thirty minutes…"

"That's all I needed to know," I stood back up, regarded my concentrating partner one more time, before turning my eyes to the several teens rushing our direction, "Cut the fire in thirty minutes, we don't need the trees turning to cinder."

"U-understood," She breathed out her understanding in a hushed whisper, loud and clear enough for me to detect within the smothering screeches of our forested surroundings.

The timer started now.

"What do you think you're doing?! There are students out there!" Weiss, the girl in white, all but yelled at me in her rush.

If I were anyone else, her words would have only been regarded by the wind two centimeters before her lips.

Yet, I heard her from eleven meters away.

"If they're smart, they'll be unharmed," I informed lowly, my voice carrying a presence with it strong enough to cut through the deafening air of agonizing torture.

"How can you say that?! The heat out there is smoldering-" She tried to reply, but I didn't let her finish.

"Don't underestimate my partner. She's far more capable than you or anyone in any relation _to_ you," Her face burned red and her anger flared, "Now, you can either stuff a sock in your mouth and choke down any more rebuttals or you can stare in gawking confusion at what's about to take place."

She almost shut up. Stunned silence was the only delay before her next words.

"H-how dare you!" This time, she really did scream.

"Weiss! It's okay, he didn't mean it. Or, well, he probably did mean it but that's not the point! He's helping us! Ano's helping us too! They know what they're doing!" Ruby's shrill voice reasoned with the one yelling at me.

I hardly cared. But in the interest of time, I let her try to calm the heiress down.

"Ruby, he not only insulted my ability but insulted the entire lineage of my blood! How can I ever trust a man like that?!"

"I'm not asking you to!" Ruby pleaded, "Just… just don't challenge him. Please. Let him say what he needs to say."

"I'm with Ruby on this," Jaune was inclined to add, despite most of his weight pushed into the supporting shoulder of Ren. The swordsman seemed to be healing rapidly, though. Despite his fatal injuries sustained two and a half minutes prior.

The contempt, malice, and begrudging contemplation was easily visible in the icy stare of Weiss's unrelenting eyes.

She was going to yell. She was fuming. Her teeth were clenched, her delicate brows were furrowed, and the long frost white hair of her off-center ponytail shook with bristling rage. Her sharp pale cheeks shined the very same red as the inside of her pale blue bolero jacket's collar, yet she still bit her tongue.

Her thigh-length dress, despite being pale blue, glowed in dancing shadows of flickering orange beneath her jacket. Her bolero's sleeves seemed to darken into shades of blue as they trail closer to her wrists, and upon her back I sensed an insignia of a large snowflake proudly displayed in a Crest for her family lineage.

She was a Schnee.

Her knuckles, pale as they were, pulled tightly as her fists balled. One hand gripped the handle of an intricate rapier in a relentless clasp while the other shook against the folds of her combat skirt.

The young girl's apple-shaped necklace glistened in the ambient light of an illuminated forest. White, heeled wedge boots dug deeply into the glowing grass beneath her, reaching as far up as her mid-calves, while the crooked scar dipping down her left eye scrunched up in both disgust and restrained relent.

She quietly reached around to a small bag on the back of her dress, held in place by a ribbon around her waist, where Dust vials clinked and Dust crystals glistened.

Six chambers in her silver rapier spun in a tense rotation. White, yellow, blue, red, cyan, and violet flashing by as she refilled a soon opening Dust slot with ammunition from her reserves.

She said nothing.

Her weapon had a unique guard, four prongs curving back into sharp points that provided a shielded hilt to a weapon designed for thrusts and slashes. They were likely there for two reasons, protection for her pale hand and protection for her chambered Dust.

The aesthetics of the design were appalling, and the thinness of the connecting piece between the handle and the guard was abysmally weak. It relied on a hinge system in order to access the chambers of Dust to refill and exchange types.

It was ungodly stupid.

If that hinge broke… the weapon was useless.

All weapons are only as strong as their weakest parts. Whoever designed that sword was as much of a damn fool as they were a pampered privileged prick.

I hated her already.

"Three things are going to happen in the next forty seconds," I spoke slowly, strongly, so her small mind could understand, "One, I'm going to stand here smiling until you all get what I'm saying. Two, Grimm in mass numbers are going to be corralled into this field in varying degrees of disarray and degradation. And three, you're all going to station yourselves strategically in a perimeter around Anoel and end the miserable lives of the creatures still breathing."

My words were cold, calculated, spoken through a small grin of slight satisfaction and pleasure. This was their first test. This was a challenge of my own creation that solved several factors all at once.

It eliminated the threat of the immediate future while sustaining the credit I needed to approach Ozpin's desk. It revealed to the naïve souls around me what paths their occupation will, in all cases, head down in this line of work.

It was insurance that weeded out the weak from the strong.

"Is there no other way? Can we not simply complete the assignment and arrive back at Beacon like we were told?" Jaune's partner, Pyrrha, asked with a forced smile for politeness.

It was as unnecessary as the flash of cleavage revealed by her strapless leather and bronze-colored metal-padded top.

"You wish to complete the bare minimum, yet you aspire for excellence. It's people like you that get on my nerves. What sympathy should be shown to creatures of Grimm? What situation, in any lifetime, could possibly convince you that sparing even a single one could result in a fleeting moment of salvation?" I asked harshly, fixing her with a mild glare.

Her smile fell.

"I was only-"

"You were conforming to the society this world has engraved into your mind and soul. Open your eyes, all of you. This is your life now. This is what you are training to become," I growled, aura beginning to flair as the first grimm stumbled and clawed out of the glowing tree line, "Ruthless, merciless, efficient, grimm slaughtering machines with buttons and strings other people can use to control your every action. Accept it now, or just walk away and quit."

I drew back my arm, a solid spear of aura stringing together in my grasp before I hurled it over Pyrrha's left shoulder and pinned a burning Ursa to a tree in the far distance. It was dead a moment later.

"Decide now, or I'll kill them all myself and damn this world into a failed future with your naivety as the cause." My voice was unwavering.

They had nothing to say.

I threw another spear, and they still had yet to move.

They traded glances, grimaced in moments of tense silence and gurgled chokes of the grimm shambling out of the trees, and refused to utter even a single word.

Whether or not they take my words now doesn't matter. This is only the beginning. Their futures are their own. If they choose to neglect the very reason why they exist… then let them die in the end.

This is reality. This is real. This is their lives now.

Accept it, and move on. Ignore it, and lose all hope for an even remotely long life.

It was up to them.

It was also up to the half-melted pack of beowolves tripping and scraping the ground behind them. Thirteen of them dragged their long, thin, and raggedly black-furred arms across the ground as they stumbled toward us.

Sharp teeth bit into the flesh of their own maws. Crazed red eyes glowed, wide and open, as they trailed in a fleeting red light behind non-blinking stares. They were hungry. Black mist seeped into the air behind them as the fur on their backs, legs, and necks, burned in wavering flames that clung to them like napalm.

They were half-dead… which only brought out their more instinctual side. The side that kills most hunters who drop their guard.

Their deadliest state, yet also their most vulnerable.

I don't know if any of those around me made a decision, but they finally took action.

Jaune and Pyrrha paired up and took the east side of our small group. Ren and Nora took the south, Weiss and Ruby took the north, and I took the west.

I briefly considered whether or not they were at all competent to take down already heavily damaged grimm, but those thoughts were thankfully ushered away as the sound of fur and sinew tearing in two filled the roaring air of the Emerald Forest.

They were competent enough to slay a beast teetering at the age of death.

That was good… that was the only thing that convinced me their naivety wasn't going to lead to an early deathbed.

An Alpha Araknik scurried out of the trees in front of me, its bony hide half-melted from the immense heat of the domain of trees behind it. Its cluster of baked eyes glowed and snapped to me as its whole body shook and convulsed, then it began a slow stumbling approach in my direction.

Its usual bony shell was doubled on this spider-like grimm, its size rivaled that of an adolescent nevermore, and its legs were as sharp and jagged as the golden stinger of a large deathstalker.

It was hardly worth any effort.

I tore its legs from its body and impaled it in seven different places, its eighth leg having already been burned away from the bushes it pushed through.

It was dead in seven seconds.

The rest of our thirty-eight minutes was a slaughter.

A slaughter bathed in black and rising flame.

* * *

 **What? Did you expect that all of Ozpin's brutal initiations went flawlessly? It appears that someone died… hmm…**

 **Ignorance can get you killed! Did you know that? Niro does!**

 **Seriously, though. This is one of the concepts I want to push through this story's development. The world of Remnant is full of death and desolation. Civilization can't even branch out into the world that surrounds it. Societies die off every year that try, while the rest huddle and hide in high walls of defended cities.**

 **This is the life of the rwby-verse. This is the life that I WILL make apparent in this story.**

 **Of course, though, this story will be full of powerful characters that regard death as easily as a hunger to be satisfied. Trust me when I say this, I am going to strike every chord I can with this story that'll test the very knowledge anyone here possesses about the world of RWBY and its predecessors.**

 **This story will have a lot of humor, satire, satisfaction, tension, and a whole lot of cynical thoughts and realistic turns.**

 **One of the goals of this story is to show you what Remnant is really like. Another goal is to entertain you with a cleverly crafted story. And, for the sake of revealing a third goal, to display characters in a light of my own imagination.**

 **This is going to be fun.**

 **For now,** _ **Favorite**_ **and** _ **Follow**_ **.**

 **I look forward to seeing** _ **REVIEWS**_ **for this. You'll be introduced to a LOT of concepts of mine. Feel free to give me your thoughts.**

 **Cya XP**


	6. Storm

Rogue Huntsman

Storm

«»

You think you're strong. You think you can push through but you're limited. You're held back by the fabric of this world and the next. You're restrained by those who made you, those who keep you. You play by the rules. You play the game built for you and those around you, a game designed to contain you, to trap you.

You don't play to win. No one plays to win in a game of agony and grief. You don't play to move forward, you don't pursue a destiny ahead of you, you don't reach for any star above you, you don't play to beat those around you or play to compete to avoid getting left behind.

You play to survive.

Strength takes you to places you can reach. Intellect lets you know how to get there. Wisdom tells you if you can make the journey. And freedom gives you the will to take the leap.

Yet, no one is willing to accept the risk.

Fear drills into the flesh of man. Deceit tears wounds for anxiety and naivety to take hold. Guilt carves paths for resentment and doubt to fester. Danger questions the very fabric of your being and ties you down in places too dark to see.

You're left in a pit of sorrow to rot away in the filth of your cowardice.

How many lives, how many generations, does it take to save a life? How many times has a life been saved in vain? How many moments have gone by, passing with the final breath of life, where death took hold of one before you?

Too many to count.

We're born, we fight, we die.

We are machines in a world of barely organized chaos. Things go our way only for something else to breach and fall to ruins. Expansions breed death and desolation, containment breeds resentment and fear, negativity brings destruction.

The world is in a constant cycle of death and creation. When one thing gets destroyed, another is created.

And yet, powers that think themselves ahead of the game still bask in the light of their own self-derived hope. They think themselves lucky, alive, important.

No one is important in a world like this, in a world like Remnant.

Grimm hold a presence stronger than any other over our heads. They are the reason why we develop, we evolve, why we strive to live on. They are the reason we die.

That is precisely why we slaughtered every last one of them that stepped through the line of trees of this burning valley.

"That's…" Ruby gasped, falling softly to her knees as her partner in white gave her a soft pat on the shoulder, "The last of them…"

"Forgive me Ruby, I was out of line earlier when I questioned your ability…" The heiress spoke meekly, like she actually cared. Maybe she did.

"It's alright," Ruby waved her hand tiredly, lungs still aching for oxygen while her muscles struggled to contract like they should, "So, we're good?"

Weiss had to give that question some thought, "I think so, but we need to work on a few things to start to get along."

Despite Ruby's minor whining squeal of annoyance, she seemed content.

Good. I'd rather have the heiress hate a guy like me than waste her energy despising her own partner. If she did that, she'd get one of them killed.

I let my aura flare for a moment as I walked past those who fought in the tight circle we held and made my way to my partner. The light in her eyes died as quickly as the light receded from the trees, and in the next moment, she collapsed limply into the grass in front of her as those shining irises closed behind pale lids.

She held that fire for 43 minutes.

"I told you not to push yourself," I muttered, lowering down to a knee before slipping my arms softly beneath the bend of her knees and around her upper back. The tips of her boots dangled as I stood, hanging over my arm as the rest of her body nestled against my chest in my grasp. Her head lulled against my upper arm and heart, convincing me it wouldn't move around unnecessarily.

She wasn't a princess, far from it, nor was she a bride.

Yet, I carried her all the same. She was always proud of her weight. Now I knew why. She was lighter than a feather.

We made it back to Beacon in 15.

* * *

I got called to the principal's office. At least, that's what it was degraded to. Nothing more than a trip built to reinforce the unsaid rules of the school.

"Mr. Ezdeil, would you care to explain the havoc you raised out there in the Emerald Forest today?" A woman, blonde and looking too young for her age, addressed me. She stood beside Ozpin, the headmaster, owner of Beacon Academy, in his tall chair behind a desk as large as his ego.

Or, would even that be too small?

"The grimm populous of the surrounding area was getting out of hand. I'm sure you took notice of this, sir." Politeness gets the everyday man killed. No, I'm not being polite. My intentions were far from kissing this man's cane.

This is bartering for time.

"I was well aware of the substantial increase in grimm within the woods surrounding my school." Ozpin, or so his assistant calls him so informally, stood from his chair and clasped the only two hands he had behind his back.

His cane rested against his desk.

He wasn't hindered in the slightest.

"However, no student should take it upon themselves to take care of that threat. We have faculty here and professors willing to take an hour out of their day to handle the task safely." Ozpin spoke with a voice as level as his aged eyes, yet he appeared far younger than he spoke. His hair had long since silvered, or, has it always been silver to begin with…

Ozpin was a man of a thousand years. He's live far longer than I. That much was certain.

"We worked as a unit to eradicate the grimm threat. No danger was imposed on any student I requested the help from, and those within the forest were protected by a shield of heat my partner placed around them." I had a little more care in my words than usual, but not much, enough to honey them just far enough to be tolerable.

This man was the key to finding my father's killer.

I continued, "They worked at my side willingly, though, I was the orchestrator of everything."

It was actually Jaune. He did it all. Let him take the fall. It was 100% Jaune's fault.

Poor bastard, can't even take credit for something he didn't do.

"That is precisely why this is an issue!" Glynda nearly placed her palm solidly on the desk out of some kind of reactional urge. I was glad she didn't.

She'd break it.

"You coerced them into fighting a number of threats beyond their skill levels. The initiation is designed to test the students. It gathers data we need in order to properly gauge where they're potential lies." Her voice, for some reason, began to lessen and lighten in tone, as if she were trying to make her intentions softer to justify her would be actions, "What would've happened if one of them didn't make it?"

"One student already fell to grimm during your initiation, he was the partner to a young kitsune," I informed but little came of it.

"That's to be expected," The old man sighed, turning on his heal and moving over to the vast window at his flank. It spanned in segments across the entire rounding wall of this tower, reaching around to the elevator at its opposite side, "Our standards are high for this school. But it seems that few can still slip between our methods of acceptance."

Jaune did it too. That much was obvious.

The roof consisted of barely muffled grinding gears, ticking away as the ageless face I saw in the reflection of the window regarded me out of the corner of his eye. The floor was nothing more than black marble.

"By my understanding, though," Ozpin spoke slowly, with purpose and thought behind his words, something I didn't like or know where it was headed, "You saved that girl's life."

"Blake saved that girl's life with the aid of a girl named Yang, I took no part in her care," I responded as evenly as I was addressed. It was honesty.

I couldn't tell what his reaction was to it.

"You spotted her across a battlefield and requested someone to attend to her," Ozpin stated.

Glynda held up a stern hand, "Perhaps _ordered_ is the correct term, actually."

"The intent was the same, Glynda. He meant to save her." Ozpin turned around now, addressing me with the exact same look he gave me when I first walked in here. Emotionless intrigue with a tiny touch of cleverness.

I abide by few rules in life. One of which is to always be the smartest one in the room.

We were in agreement.

Ozpin placed his fingers on his smooth, clean desk, and leaned forward, "Are you interested in how she's doing?"

"That would be beyond my care," I replied. It wasn't something I should bother with.

"You should care," Ozpin began to smile, his white teeth glinting for merely a moment in the second they actually revealed themselves, before he reached into his pocket and withdrew a slightly chipped black pawn, "I believe you were the one who gave me this so kindly?"

Glynda had to stifle a cough.

"That would be correct," I said. I knew where he was going with this… and I definitely didn't like it.

"Her name is Kitsuki Aeolus. She was never able to obtain an artifact like the rest due to extraneous circumstances regarding her late partner, and now, she's in need of a team," He slowly placed the pawn on its base in front of him, then slid it across the surface of his desk, "Your move, Mr. Ezdeil."

"Teams are announced later tonight, so do make your decision now while we have your attention," Glynda added.

"With all due respect," If I had any to give, "Kitsuki should be put on a team where she'll find some amount of acceptance. I doubt she-"

"I'm sure you'll accept her with open arms," Ozpin interrupted me, his smile growing.

He… he cut me off.

I'll kill him.

"Then what of her partner? Will she have none?" I asked, narrowing my eyes at the challenge Ozpin so graciously left just within my reach.

"I'm sure someone will show up eventually. Until then, you will be the leader of a team of three." The headmaster finally pushed himself back, standing straight once again, "Now, Mr. Ezdeil, would that be advantageous to you?"

I narrowed my eyes further, digging the tips of my fingers into the palms of my hands as I stood still and tense.

It wasn't worth it. The less we interact with one another, the better. But… something told me we would be engaging more often than just once. I saw it in his eyes.

It had no intention of going away.

"It would," I replied reluctantly.

I was going to ruin a small girl's future, wasn't I…

"Excellent. Then you are now aware of your team's composition. Feel free to show up to the ceremony tonight for the pairings," Ozpin said with a professional, almost patented wittiness, "Of course, you have no obligation to go, now that you have the information you need. You will still be announced, however, so it may affect your reputation if you refuse to step on stage."

This man, how much did he know? I've never met him before… he was too aware for his own good.

"I'll think about it," I responded, turning to leave.

"Your team name is ELA, do remember that." Ozpin addressed me one final time before I walked away, my boots clicking dully against the hard ebony floor before all of it disappeared behind golden elevator doors.

I'm not going to that ceremony.

* * *

"She's so cute sleeping like this," Anoel brushed her knuckles lightly along one of Kitsuki's bandaged arms, "Like a fluffy little bundle of adorableness."

Blake did a decent job bandaging up the kitsune, and Yang was careful when transporting her to the infirmary wing of Beacon Academy. We were in a singular unit, one of the rooms with only one bed, a couple chairs, and a window.

Ano sat at the girl's side, holding the girl's hand in her own as the girl slept and tried to recover from her wounds.

A gentle flame extended from where their hands clasped together, running up and inside the bandages of the girl's arms before flickering further up her skin and over the rest of her body. With it came a deep breath, silently rushing through the girl's mouth as he face scrunched up for a moment and her ears folded against her head.

As the flame subsided, her breathing returned to normal.

It wasn't irregular.

"I've been healing her in intervals, so most of her shallow wounds should be closed and healed by now. It's the deeper ones I'm worried about." Anoel said softly, brushing a lock of white hair off of Kitsuki's sleeping face as my partner turned toward me, "She won't be able to fight for a little while."

"That's fine. I can handle the combat," It was hardly ever any effort to begin with, "I'd prefer it that she focused on recovery beyond anything else. It'll help her settle into her probable uselessness."

Anoel narrowed her eyes at me, her nose scrunching up only slightly, "She's sixteen, Niro. But I can sense something in her… something I have as well. I can't tell exactly what the properties of it consist of, but I felt my own resonate with it."

I've had no reason in the last few hours to extend my senses to the girl lying in the bed in front of me, but if what Ano was saying held any merit… then it was worth the few seconds that it took.

"She has an affinity fragment." I noticed, "And a strong one."

"Mhmm." Anoel hummed with a small nod, "I don't know which element, though."

"I would suspect fire, maybe white flame, but that's just stupid," I said, watching as the girl breathed and listened as her breath failed to even slightly rattle my eardrums. It was as pitch-less as it was silent.

She had no voice. Something damaged her vocal cords and her voice box.

She was mute.

"I think white fire would be cool to see." Anoel admitted, "My own flame can take on the shade of gold, which is rather beautiful if you look at it." She trailed off, losing herself once again in a caring gaze between herself and the girl's face in front of her.

Sometimes… she was a little too motherly for her age.

"Do you look at my flames, Niro?" Ano asked quietly, almost suddenly.

What the hell does was that supposed to mean?

"I do." It was hard not to when they build enough atmospheric pressure to sweep aside the majority of the clouds in the sky and draw up a drafting wind strong enough to start upward turning tornadoes.

"What do you think of them?" Ano asked, turning a pair of humorous silver eyes back to me.

I stuffed my hands in my pockets and took my lime green irises elsewhere, glancing out the nearest window instead. There was only one in the room, anyway, "They're warm."

I heard Anoel hum for a few more moments, and without me seeing it, her eyes transitioned into a soft orange for a few seconds before becoming a shining gold, "I'm happy you like touching my flames, Niro."

"That wasn't the intent," I muttered.

She didn't care.

Kitsuki woke up half an hour later. She wasn't surprised to see either of us, but she was afraid to be in the presence of one of us.

So I left the room.

* * *

None of us had anything to unpack.

I smelled a faint rain running over the eastern mountains of Sanus, high ridges protecting the valley of Vale and its forests. It carried no salt with it, so it didn't come from the southern ocean, so it must have come from the eastern shores.

A storm was coming.

Our room was bare and white, the only materials we were supplied were bedding for the mattresses and our choice of color schemes if we didn't bring our own. I chose black, fitting myself with a fully black bed with a pillowcase and comforter designed with something akin to simple gray patterns.

Anoel chose colors that looked like a Fall Maiden hacked up her most recent art project. It was a nice setup, and the colors blended together nicer than my own. And mine were black. She was the fashion, it seemed, of our team. Her bed was gold, orange, yellow, and red, not in that order. I don't see a need to explain it further. I just know that it looked better than mine.

Kitsuki's was the opposite of my own, her main color was the choice of frost white and her patterns across her pillow case and blanket were black and light blue, though, mostly black. She had a little trouble getting everything situated. It wasn't her injuries, no, Anoel healed those up perfectly. It was the fact that she was short and her arm span was lacking, so Ano had to help her get her sheets on.

The fourth bed remained barren.

"Where are you from?" Anoel asked, sitting on her bed as she propped herself up against her pillow. Her question was addressed to the small kitsune, getting a small jump out of her but otherwise leaving her just a little on edge.

I didn't blame her.

Kituski's golden-orange eyes glanced toward me for a moment before shying away, looking more toward the floor than anything else as she held her hands up near her chest.

She then used her fingers to flash out a couple signs which strung together into the known language of mutes and applied specialists who translate meaningless statements.

She was using sign language.

" _Mistral."_ She signed out effortlessly.

She's been voiceless for most of her life, I could tell. But, she wasn't born voiceless…

"Which class were you? Were you high society, living the good life of culture and trade? Or, were you… the other?" Ano asked.

Kitsuki quietly sat on the edge of her white bed before taking a moment to respond, _"I grew up in an orphanage with the lower class. It wasn't much of an orphanage, though, since we were self-run and self-funded."_

I get it.

She was part of a small team of misfits on the streets. Each member stole to get by and fought tooth and nail against other thieves for even the smallest fortunes they could get their hands on. Life must've been unpredictable.

But not impossible.

Mistral was the home to the largest black market in the world, and with it, came the thieves and the crooks.

And the assassins.

Was she a thief… or an assassin? Or, was she neither…

Or both.

"Aww, well listen, life here is going to be good for you. I'll be here for you whenever you need it, Niro will too, though to a lesser extent. We're all in this together now, and we'll be sure to get you through as many years as we can." Ano said softly, giving the girl a warm smile.

Kitsuki nodded slightly, running a nervous hand down behind her to pull her bundle of three tails across her lap. Anoel's eyes never left them now that they were in view.

There was a dull illumination from outside in the darkening sky, before a crack of thunder sounded in the distance. Kitsuki flinched faintly, ears quickly folding against her head as she huddled into the depths of her scarf and tails.

" _Where are you from?"_ The kitsune signed out, looking to both Ano and, surprisingly, me.

"Hmm," Ano hummed, lightly tapping her chin as she looked back at me for a few seconds, "Niro's from a lot of different places. But, he grew up in Vacuo and moved out of the city in his earlier years. He eventually ended up in Vale, where he found me."

She purposefully left herself out of the mix and all details pertaining to _why_ I moved around so much. It wasn't hard to talk about, not anymore. I never knew my mother. She died when I was born. My father took every year after that to blame me for it. He never left me, though.

He was too sentimental for that.

He wasn't wrong. I was born with a semblance that was permanently activated upon my entrance to the world. It's stayed active ever since and was likely the cause of my mother's death. Very few are born with passive semblances, let alone those with such adverse effects as my own.

But some are, and most live unnaturally short lives.

My semblance caused every ensuing encounter with anyone human or creature to be rather… gruesome. My power directly draws on certain essences around me, certain energies. My 'curse' is always directly affecting those I'm in the proximity of.

Like some sort of damnation or abomination in human skin. That's what I was born into, that's what I am. That's how others see me.

The lingering effects of that proximity are mostly negative. They were at their peak in my youngest years, spawning some unsavory stories I'd rather keep unknown.

Everyone I've ever met, no matter what, have grown to hate me. I've come to expect it… because it has yet to change. At all.

Over the years, my father began to tolerate me. The old man finally got a grip on his own grief and desired to raise me as his son, if I could even call myself that at this point. After moving out of any cities we happened to stay in, developments began to take place.

After I turned ten, my semblance finally stabilized part of its passive proximity effect enough to not continuously exude itself like a miniature sun. Unfortunately, there was no way to deactivate it in its entirety.

I was stuck with it.

I can reduce the negative effects of it on others, but all effects are still there. My personality developed from there, basically embracing my semblance as it was. It's who I am, after all. I hate everything... because they'll always hate me back.

It's a cycle I can't break.

I'm a walking grimm magnet who pisses off everyone I talk to. I'm subject to this permanently and continuously with every moment of my existence.

Which got several people killed in the past.

Those mishaps brought on the greatest of disgust for me. I stopped caring after a while. My passiveness to fighting off and neglecting the presence of grimm stemmed from the years that followed. After that, I basically began to accept the world as it is. Corrupt, helpless, and dying.

There is, of course, one person I've met in my life who was essentially immune to the negative draws on my passive. Don't ask me how, or why, or if that was even possible. Clearly, it was, given her existence.

Her name's Anoel, the only person who hasn't grown to think negatively of me. As long as I can keep her alive, then the world will be a better place.

No matter how many times it tries to doom itself to darkness.

I wonder if Kitsuki will resent me too.

There was another strike of lightning and crash of thunder, louder now. Kitsuki was starting to look uneasy.

"Why were you out there today?" Anoel asked, flicking the tip of her hat up to let Kitsuki see more of her face.

The Kitsune's hands were shaking but remained as still as she could make them. She gave Ano a tilted, confused gaze, but there was still that underlying discomfort she started showing not too long ago. It was clear she didn't understand the question.

"Everyone gets asked that every now and then," Ano sighed, bending her leg up and one over the other, letting one socked foot bounce now every once in a while as she arched it outward, "Why do you want to be a huntress?"

The girl's eyes widened for a moment as she clasped her hands together, looking down now as she let her thoughts collect themselves.

Her shoulders were tense, almost folded in now on herself, as her eyes occasionally flicked to the window.

She was playing the part of thinking. But I saw past that, Ano and I both did. She didn't need to think about that question, the answer was too obvious to her.

" _I don't know."_

She was lying.

Anoel nodded all the same, "Well, we all have our reasons. Niro never wanted to be a huntsman. Actually, he wanted to be a baker."

Drop that happy tone and eat a knife.

Kitsuki cracked a smile at Anoel's comment, _"Really?"_

"It's true! The guy can bake! And really well, too. I've eaten his goods. Did you know he's a magnificent cook?" Ano went on with a smile, bobbing her heel up and down now as she chuckled lightly.

Kitsuki slowly shook her head, golden-orange eyes regarding me now with more curiosity than fear or discomfort.

Ano was breaking through to her.

"I taught him a bunch of stuff, but he learned most of his culinary and baking skills from someone named Arex on the west side of Vale. Niro may look all scary and intimidating, and act the part too, but always remember that he has that silly side to him as well."

I would've made a retort. I would've said a lot of things these past few minutes. But I didn't.

The situation was delicate. Something Anoel specialized in. So, I let her handle it. I turned my gaze to the window just in time to see a bright flash of white.

Then thunder.

I don't think I've ever seen a kitsune jump so high.

No wait, scratch that, I think I remember one occasion.

The sound from the sky outside shrieked through the wall of our dorm room like a gunshot in the rain. Its concussive blast tore through our hair like pressurized waves of a hurricane's tail, completely hammered the walls of the room with its sharp boom.

Anoel and I watched as Kitsuki disappeared into the blanket on her bed, curling up into the only protective position she knew of before grabbing her ears and holding them against her head. Her tails wrapped protectively around her entire body, trying hard not to shake as much as her physical body shuddered beneath the covers.

Another crack of thunder shook the room, and the lump on Kitsuki's bed jumped.

"Oh…" Anoel came to the conclusion I had seven minutes ago before she got up slowly, slipping her feet to the floor and looking back at me over her shoulder, "I think our kitsune's afraid of-"

Her words were cut off from another sharp blast of thunder.

It was getting worse.

Ano's eyes fell, her grip on her sheets tightening ever so slightly, before she got up and pushed her bed to seal it against Kitsuki's, leaving mine alone on my side of the room. Kitsuki jumped again beneath the covers, and if she could squeal, I'm sure it would've been muffled by the blanket.

I watched as Anoel crawled back onto her bed and across its surface, working her way over to Kitsuki's blanket before sitting down next to it as gently as she could.

It was hardly worth the effort. The girl was scared out of her mind.

I wonder if it was related to anything…

It wasn't long before Anoel slipped into Kitsuki's blanket as well, trying her best to comfort the girl as the storm took its wrath out on a few trees. One of them cracked down the middle from a bright strike of lightning.

Kitsuki clung to Anoel beneath the covers.

This was getting annoying.

I got up from my bed and cast a gaze to the two beneath the covers, letting another crack of lightning illuminate the room before I disappeared out the door.

Even storms grew worse around me. A simple drizzle turned into a torrential downpour, a quiet distant storm grew into a raging tempest, the universe saw me as its chew toy.

A chew toy that it thinks it can mess with.

Well, let me tell you something…

My boots tapped numbly up the stairwell before I kicked open the door at its peak, nearly ripping it from its hinges as a heavy spray of water and wind flooded into the open frame. I made my way out onto our dorm's roof and slammed the door shut behind me.

Whatever power out there who's having their fun messing with my life, take this as an example of your stupidity.

I walked out to the center of the roof and flexed my hand, weaponized glove pulling taught against my skin as lightning shattered across the sky above me. Three bolts shot down, riding the energy waves before crashing into me as I raised my glove into the air.

Ahrulian crackled with bright green energy as my eyes erupted in dashing sparks of light. My trench coat kicked back in the sudden blast of wind generated from the storm manifesting and crashing down upon me.

Bolt after bolt sent plasma through my skin, slamming into me with enough energy to power Atlas's military armada four times over. Ahrulian absorbed it all as a catalyst and a conduit for my semblance.

I growled, slamming my fingers into a fist and entering a low crouch, "Don't you know it's impolite to scare a little girl?"

My palm slammed into the roof of Beacon's dorms, shattering it completely with my aura as I surged into the air. Lime green light burst from where I stood, flooding the cracks that broke across the building and pulled them back together, sealing the damage as if the structural failure had never happened in the first place.

Wind and rain dispersed after I jumped, rushing away from me in a spanning dome of silence as I tore upward, my trench coat trailing loudly behind me as I entered the heart of the storm.

Howling gales and highly energized lightning tried to tear away at me, flashing within the dark clouds around me as lights shot across the plumes of blackness. My energy was stronger. I drew my hand through the air, bright strands of light trailing behind it as I split the air with a smoldering blaze of green, before slamming my gloved hand into my chest and shattered the night sky in my own green light.

Shining, lime green lightning broke through the clouds, jamming into and splitting everything it touched at it crawled through the storm's entire covering, only stopping at the very edges of the clouds in the sky and snapping the air beyond its borders…

Before the entire expanse of the tempestuous storm broke to pieces and dispersed completely, leaving behind a cloudless night sky.

I fell back to Remnant in a blaze of annoyance.

I was done with this.

* * *

 **So, Niro just dispersed a raging storm. How 'bout that…**

 **Anyway, readers, meet Kitsuki. Kitsuki, wave to the readers *waves*.**

 **Whelp, I'm definitely still getting used to this style of writing. I hope it was at least enjoyable. There was a bit of a 'Now You See Me' reference, which was a movie based around magicians. If you can spot it, then good.**

 **I like how Ozpin is progressing, don't you? He's fun.**

 **Niro's fun to write for. Like, really fun to write for. I'm highly enjoying this. And no, I wasn't kidding when I said he can cook and bake. Anoel's intel is as good as it gets, and it's never wrong.**

 **Anyway, any guesses on Niro's semblance? I've given you his weapon, basically. It's called Ahrulian. I wonder if any of you can guess why I named it that. You can assume its uses, but you've only been shown two functions so far.**

 **Lord Adhes – "sooo...self-regeneration?" Heh, that's just a byproduct of his semblance. So, no.**

 **AxelLord20 – "If I'm correct then he's using his aura to make strings out of them, and is able to weave them into different shapes." Well, that's a function of his weapon you have there. But, no, that's not his semblance.**

 **I wanted to make those comments known to you so that you know where the information lies right now. No one has guessed his semblance yet. The only person to have gotten even remotely close was a guy named andy, and I had to force-feed him hints.**

 **Then I basically just straight up told him what it was just to see the look on his face (tone in his words). It was worth it.**

 **Let's see if anyone can get close with what Niro's semblance actually is.**

 **For now,** _ **Favorite**_ **and** _ **Follow**_ **.**

 **I look forward to seeing** _ **REVIEWS**_ **for this. You'll be introduced to a LOT of concepts of mine. Feel free to give me your thoughts.**

 **Cya XP**


	7. Forfeit

Rogue Huntsman

Forfeit

«»

The air was wet, sticky, and grimy on everyone's shoes. It clung to our soles as we walked across campus, staunching the air we breathed with every intake and crushing our lungs in its stingy grasp. It wasn't just brisk. It was humid and annoyingly soaked with the stench of still drying mud.

Rain was the worst.

My coat was still wet from last night, having been completely drenched at the epicenter of the storm that raged for merely one and a half hours.

The trees glistened like they were diamonds in the rough with slickened leaves in the morning sun, if only they knew of their extortion in a world so primitive, so industrial.

They know nothing of their own destruction.

It was always better that way… it makes it more humane. More natural, safer, less morally draining…

I wasn't thinking about trees anymore.

"You look all gloomy and grumpy, Niro. What's with the dark undertone?" Anoel asked, walking alongside me with a small pale hand clutched in her opposite. With it, she tugged along the scared fox from last night.

She didn't need any help walking.

"I wear black clothes and reek of aura, what about me isn't a dark undertone?" I asked, flicking my collar for a moment to ditch a couple running driblets of water.

"Oh, don't be like that. We all know you secretly have a really big heart and you're not afraid to show off your soft side." I could almost hear the smirk on Anoel's face.

"Think what you want," The wind took that moment to slip over the nearest cliffside and blow across the courtyards, pulling rainwater off leaves and over the edges of rooftops and scattering it across the pathway we were walking. Each drop striking the pavement sounded like a gunshot in a barren desert, resounding for miles but only heard by a single soul.

All other souls were dead or beyond its range.

"But you should know," I continued, reaching out a hand and catching a few stray raindrops on my glove, followed by a damp, heavy leaf, "All men have a side to them they don't want you to see. You just have to wonder if it's the right course of action to draw it out."

My fingers crushed around the leaf, only letting slip a minor bright flash of green light before I opened them, letting some dust fall from my palm now as we walked.

"If you push someone hard enough, it might not be the soft side they reveal to you."

"Hmm," Ano hummed, skipping for a moment in her step and getting a particularly visible eep out of Kitsuki to her left, "I'll take my chances. I'm a pretty good judge of character."

"You're lousy at staying out of situations you're not supposed to be involved with, though."

"Oh, but where's the fun in keeping to myself if there's _so_ much excitement to be had with others?" Anoel asked with a smile, and when I looked over, I noticed Kitsuki lagging behind slightly.

The clicks of her black boots grew softer as she slowly edged her way behind my partner. Her head tilted down all of a sudden, away from something ahead of her as we made our way along the path toward one of our classes.

We were passing other students hanging around a bench near the path's tree line.

Indigo eyes leered our way, glancing past the collar of my trench coat and beyond the rim of my partner's hat, narrowing in on a pair of folded fox ears behind Anoel. Combed, burnt-orange hair shined in the morning sun above those eyes, acting as an outcrop of arrogance as its front peaked slightly for the style.

His silver-gray armor was more pristine than it should've been, and his gold-trim was cleaner than the man deserved. On its front was a bird, something only suckers wore when bearing their family crests in a world of virtue and corruption.

He was a Winchester. He wasn't on the side of virtue.

"Hey," His voice tried to make itself sound low, but beneath it was a higher tone masked by an air of condescending pipe dreams and a security only found in a bib and a fluffy blanket. He felt safe, despite his tall stature and being at the optimal height of losing his head first should an ax suddenly sweep overhead, "It's that little abomination again."

Two more sets of eyes joined the first, "The thing with the three tails?" One of them spoke.

"Wonder what kind of lab cooked up that squirt of an experiment…" Someone else spoke up next to the privileged heir, sporting dark blue hair and blue eyes. His armor was gray… vambraces in the same style, same trim, same boring dull reflection.

It paled in comparison to a stone wall built to protect some unfortunate village. At least that structure had the dignity to stand still and let something else sink its claws into its flesh.

No, this guy had the wit to run, he reeked of cowardice.

They all did.

All four of them.

We walked by them as they laughed. Sneers were constantly sent toward Kitsuki's tails as they pushed each other and nudged each other's arms, fooling around like fools often do.

The greatest fools took the stage to accept death in the face of entertainment. Those are the fools people admired.

These weren't the fools people admired.

"Tch, I know Beacon's all prestigious and all, but I guess pricks like that tend to pop up no matter where you go," Anoel said with a sigh, her voice soft now. The fleeting excitement and spark of warm happiness present in her tone mere moments ago had all but dulled.

She let go of Kitsuki's hand.

Kitsuki didn't come to class with us.

* * *

Anoel wasn't here either.

I watched as two students stumbled around one another on the arena below. Their clumsy footsteps clicked against the hard, black panels of the ground they stood on, engaging one another in combat fit to entertain only those lousy enough to accept free tickets to an already cheap show.

Bar fights were more entertaining than this excuse of a sparring match.

Cardin, or so I've heard now that his name has been announced, was duking it out with Jaune Arc, the halfwit wannabe from the field in the Emerald Forest.

The one that almost died after a bird landed on him.

"This," Cardin kicked Jaune's shield dead on. Jaune wasn't even smart enough to position it in such a way to glance a predictable attack to the side. Instead, he took it like the man he wished he was as the shield was pounded back, bending his arm away from his defenses before Cardin slammed his foot down onto the ground in one fell, powerful step as he grabbed the blonde by the hair, "Is where you lose."

Jaune's shrill voice was lost as a hefty thud. Or was it a dull smack? Something with a quiet crack sounded out as Cardin yanked Jaune's head down into his rising knee, finishing the match without a scratch to his own aura as he let Jaune crumple to the floor.

I guess he treats everyone that way. A high king among flocks of sheep, willing to brand all those with the thinner coats with a burning rod while leaving the thicker ones for later.

No, he was more of a wolf among berries. Brave enough to try each one, but dumb enough to bite off more than he can chew.

Cardin walked off stage as the lights came back on, revealing Glynda Goodwitch standing off to the side with her large scroll in hand, "The victor is Cardin Winchester. Mr. Arc, please make your way to the locker room. If you need medical attention, I'm sure a willing student will help you receive it."

I watched as someone stood up, a few seats to my right and down a few rows. She had fiery red hair tied in a ponytail, something I recognized immediately. She looked worried.

She had no right to be.

"N-no, I'm fine," Jaune coughed, face slightly bruised but healing, as he pushed himself to his knees and picked up his shield, "Perfectly… fine."

His voice was low, grumbly, and in a lot of pain.

He had tolerance. Either that or he lacked the intelligence to call it quits when an overwhelming power was knocking at his door. He was biding his time, taking the weight so no one else had to.

If only he knew… no one ever shouldered problems on their own.

All it ever takes is a single moment, the very instant you make a mark on someone else. They shoulder every problem you face alongside you. It's worked that way ever since humanity was conceived at the beginning of time.

Pyrrha sat back down as Jaune crawled to his feet, making his way into a tunnel at the far wall of the arena in a few seconds.

"Our next scheduled match will be our last for the day," Glynda spoke out across the scattered students in the stands of the circular room, eyes glancing over each of us, the slightest stalls in the movements of her pupils were enough to tell me who she was calling next, so I stood up, "Mr. Ezdeil and Miss Valkyrie, please make your way down and prepare yourselves for combat."

I pulled the cloth of my glove taught for a moment as I took a step-

"I forfeit!"

Turning back, I noticed Nora standing from her seat with her hand in the air. She had a meek smile on her face and a small tilt of the head. She was playing the innocent, fearful card rather well. But her words alone got a few snickers and laughs from her peers.

"Miss Valkyrie, exercising your right to forfeit is within the conduct of this class. However, to do so before the match begins is bad sportsmanlike-"

"I know, but I can't go down there against him! He'll cream me!" Nora cried out, falling back into her seat dramatically with a heavy shiver rushing down her spine.

Was she… serious?

"Very well, your participation grade will not suffer. But do keep in mind that if this is a reoccurring problem with you, I will deduct points from your overall marks in this class. This is your only warning, now," Glynda looked across the array of students once again before her eyes stopped, "Mr. Tyro, please step forward-"

"Uh, I forfeit too. Sorry." Rex Tyro, someone as tall and as brawn as Cardin himself, didn't so much as stand from his seat. He had one silver boot kicked up on the backrest of the seat in front of him and leaned back into his own.

"V-very well, perhaps your partner? Miss Stowe?"

"I forfeit as well," Dark silver eyes, crimson hair, red headphones around her neck, the guy's partner seemed to be in a different league than his own. Maybe they got along that way.

I started making my way back to my seat.

"Is anyone here willing to spar with Mr. Ezdeil?" Glynda asked instead, fixing her glasses on her face with a very mild flush in her cheeks. I guess she wasn't expecting this kind of reaction. Or, maybe she was… and Ozpin had mentioned it prior.

If I were to guess, she made a bet with him. She was on the side of no one wanting to face me. He was on the side of someone stepping up to the challenge…

She seemed pleased with the results.

"Anyone?" She asked again when no one raised their hands.

Ozpin was very rarely wrong.

Two hands lifted into the air as I looked down the line of turning heads. Yang's hand was up, as well as someone else's I didn't recognize. He was further down the line, far off to the left and in one of the middle rows.

It was hard to see him, to be honest. His entire team had white hair… and their attire consisted of mostly the color white anyway. It was like they were all from Atlas, only, they weren't even close to that kind of upbringing.

The one who raised his hand had white hair, chin-length, and bright sky blue eyes. Those irises were currently glancing toward me, almost challengingly, before settling on Yang's own challenging orbs.

The lilac ones.

"Sorry frosty, but let me handle this one!" Yang called out, standing up and crossing her arms.

The one in white dropped his hand and stood up as well, "Forgive me, but I'd like to fight him as well. From what I've seen and heard, I think it'll be quite the spar."

He had that rich, condescending flair to him. But it was all an act. He played the polite card, but his past said otherwise. It felt like he didn't belong…

Something was off about him.

"Well, forgive me for putting a damper on your parade buddy. But I have a score to settle with thin, dark, and stupid up here," Yang thrust a thumb over her shoulder in my direction before placing her hands on her hips, "So let me fight him, yeah?"

The white-haired teen seemed to get it, taking his seat again next to another fox-yōkai. This makes two of them that I've seen within 48 hours.

What the hell was the world coming to… when you laid eyes upon two kitsune in such a short amount of time. At least this one could talk.

"The match has been decided then. Miss Xiao Long and Mr. Ezdeil, please prepare yourselves." Glynda made the sparring match official and ushered us down to center stage.

I didn't need to take a detour to the locker room for any equipment or armor. I just placed a solid hand on the railing of the top wall of the arena and leaped over. My trench coat pulled behind me from the sudden rush of wind in my plummet, but aside from the noise of that fabric whipping behind me nothing else was heard.

My landing was quiet, as opposed to my usual ground crushing impacts.

I didn't have the money to pay for an entire arena floor.

My legs carried me to my position as I waited, and before long, I watched as Yang made her way out of a tunnel and to the opposite side of the ring. She was rolling her neck, cracking her knuckles, and hopping on the balls of her feet as she eyed me up.

"Oh, I've been _waiting_ for this one," She passionately taunted me with a crack of the neck, pulling her chin in an unnatural direction as she fixed me with a heated glare, "You dissed my partner, you dissed me, and you used my sister for your little game of slaughter. I think I need to teach you a little something about family."

"You think family means nothing to me?" I asked, placing my hand just before the bend of my inner elbow as I pulled up my hand, flexing my fingers up and beside my head as I regarded Yang in a diagonal stance.

"Pfft, with the way you've been acting and talking, I doubt you even know what respect is let alone the meaning of family, or how they should be treated. Even if they're not related by blood," Yang replied with a heartfelt laugh for emphasis, shaking out her hands now as she entered a boxer's stance.

"The match will begin momentarily," Glynda cut in now, "The first person whose aura enters the red loses and the match will be stopped immediately. Any damage past that will not be tolerated. Furthermore, the match can be called at any time under my own discretion or that of one of the combatants, both of which have the right to forfeit. Anything else applies, so long as they are within reason."

She listed off the rules, but I knew Yang was more interested in beating my face in than listening to another blonde talk.

Maybe I should let her.

"Are you two ready?" Glynda asked.

Yang's head nodded enthusiastically, almost forcefully, while I continued staring at my opponent in a position that didn't even remotely qualify as a combat stance. I stood straight, lax in a tall posture, regarding my opponent out of the corner of my eye rather than head on.

I didn't need any other stance for this.

"So be it," Glynda took a step back, the click of her heel dulling beneath the rising tension.

The lights once again shut off, leaving the ring of the arena the only illuminated portion of the vast room we stood in.

"Begin."

Yang dipped down into a low charge, coming at me with fists ignited in a reflection of golden light and yellow flames. The bracelets once adorning her wrists had been extended into gauntlets through a forceful implementation of momentum, letting the weight within them catch and pull to slide the panels into a set transformation.

I deactivated my aura shield, cut off my healing, and turned to regard my opponent.

Her fist made contact with my gut first, striking where it hurt. With it came a harsh, loud, red blast of a shotgun burst that tore through my body. No glint of a shining shotgun shell twirled through the air, which told me all of her ammunition was ejected at the end of each linked chain of bullets.

When she reloaded, to be more precise.

It wasn't a smart decision, given the lack of ability to reload whenever she needed. She was required to use every last bullet before ejecting an empty cartridge of bullet shells. However, it did solve any issues that could occur in jams during a singular shell's ejection.

My jaw was her next target. She struck it with the force of a train skidding on ice in the high mountains of Mantle, going a little too fast as it plowed through snow layered thickly over the rails before its wheels.

Trains needed a lot of power and speed up there.

She dislocated my jaw with a second punch, pushing me back a step as she took up a left hook and crossed it into my side, slamming her fist there as well and firing another shotgun blast through my ribs and lung.

She had a thirsty glint in her eyes. A red, fiery drive. It was heated, smoldering in a trailing blur of red as her crimson eyes burned with a passion I hadn't seen in anyone for so long. Her lust for revenge and her anger to avenge were blinding her, driving her forward to take more and more, to take and take.

To beat me to a pulp with everything she had.

And she did.

She pushed me back, punching and slipping around me, driving her knees into my body and kicking at my legs, attempting to break the bones there if she could.

I stayed standing.

Blood dripped down my arms, splatters of it lay in fresh stains on the floor around me as the girl pounded away at me, driving herself further and further as she unloaded the last of her bullets into my stomach.

Her shoulders were rising and falling, her lungs wracked with heavy breathing as her eyes hid within the darkness of her bangs. She kept her smoking fist pressed solidly against my chest.

Her last, empty cartridge clicked, as her knuckles pressed against my heart.

Several of my ribs had been broken, all of them fractured. Both of my lungs were struggling to function, holes littering their walls, much like the rest of my body. My arms still remained at my sides, they've been like that since the fight started.

My legs weren't shaking. My stature was broken. I was still straight and my eyes were still open.

I was still standing.

I let her breathe, gasping for air as she took in a deep breath before me, then let it all out in a harsh exhale.

She had me against the wall. Maybe that was why I was still standing after all that.

Her fists were bloody, her sharp gauntlets softly glinting now, and her eyes were hard and glistened in the light as she finally looked up at me.

They weren't red anymore.

"Why?" Her voice croaked out, losing its edge it had before. The fire in her presence was simmering down now.

I brought up my arm and wiped my bloody mouth with the back of my wrist, clearing that away as I smirked at her, "Was it satisfying?"

My question left her stunned. She didn't know what to say, or how to go about finding an answer for a question like that. She bit her lip for a while, eyes regarding mine for a solid minute before she pushed a breath through her nose and looked away, "It was, sorta, yeah."

My smirk widened behind my wrist, and I reactivated my aura.

The entirety of my body subtly shined as my shield spread across my being, reflecting the light in the room for a brief moment before I felt energy start to pour through my veins and flood its way through every millimeter of me once again.

All of the wounds Yang inflicted closed, the blood coating my clothes burned away, and all bones, fractures, and dislocations shifted and fixed in the same moment as I took Yang's fist off my heart and stepped around her.

"Good," I commented softly, lowly, as I made my way toward the exit.

"W-wait," Yang suddenly spoke, her eyes drifting across the floor in front of her and around her as her fists fell to her sides, "Why did you…" Her eyes were wider than usual, confusion spilling from her tongue as she glanced up at me, "Why didn't you fight back?"

"I had no reason to," I replied, but I kept the real reason to myself. She didn't need to know.

I kept walking.

"N-no reason to…" She was still confused, good.

She then asked something else, softer now, but I caught it nonetheless.

"Who wins?" Yang's voice filled the air one more time with no more certainty to it than before. She sounded unsure, lost, but… almost thankful, if I could even justify that within her character.

The answer to her question was easy.

I walked into the shadows, out of the light. And before I disappeared entirely, I turned my head to regard Yang out of the corner of my eye, one more time, before giving her one more smirk.

"I forfeit."

I left and went to find Kitsuki.

* * *

 **Sheesh, I'm one of those writers who let Cardin pick on one of my characters to build sympathy and anger. What you're probably thinking right now is the coming chapters will mostly likely have someone valiantly step forward and put him in his place.**

 **Teach him a lesson. Make him stop bullying something so fluffy and adorable. I know that's what some of you are thinking because that's what I'm hoping you're thinking.**

 **Maybe I will, maybe I won't. It'd be up to the rest of her three-person team. It'd be their decision to step in on someone else's problem.**

 **For now, we'll just see what happens.**

 **Also, I wonder if anyone knows why Niro did what he did in his sparring match against Yang. He has his reasons, he always does.**

 **But anyway, these next chapters are going to be the kind that I slip in humor more and more wherever I see fit. So, there's that to look forward to.**

 **Hope you liked it! Or, you know, the usual.**

 **For now,** _ **Favorite**_ **and** _ **Follow**_ **.**

 **I look forward to seeing** _ **REVIEWS**_ **for this. You'll be introduced to a LOT of concepts of mine. Feel free to give me your thoughts.**

 **Cya XP**


	8. Wind

Rogue Huntsman

Wind

«»

I brushed my hands down the front of my coat, letting my fingers catch on the several bloody holes torn through it as I made my way from the interior arena. Bullets pushed their way out of my body, clattering to the floor as I walked as traces of blood evaporated from their burning surfaces.

Soon after, the bullets disintegrated into nothing more than flakes and disappeared into the still air above them, the blood riddling my coat having already done the same.

Glowing green strands of light netted together within each hole of my battered attire, stringing progressively more lines together in countless crosshatches before the light faded into black cloth.

People would call bullshit…

They would be right, of course, if they were the kind to refuse all impossibilities in the face of implausibility, especially in their own lives.

No, the art of overcoming the odds has been around since the dawn of existence.

Impossibility in relativity is the only justification for implausibility. Beyond that is up to the one proving the impossible to be possible.

Though, none of that explains the transition from aura to cloth.

I guess that would be confusing, wouldn't it… if my clothes were made of such a delicate material.

My scroll buzzed ever so slightly in my pocket, and I pulled it out to read a message from my partner. She managed to slip away after attendance, disappearing somewhere else on the campus. I didn't bother tracking her with my senses. She'd get a kick out of that.

' _Running a few errands off campus. Take care of Kitsuki, will you? I'll be back by morning. Oh! And before I forget, poor girl had nightmares the other night. You might have to sleep with her like I did. Have a good night! 3'_ No one could blame me if my scroll suddenly crumpled and crushed in on itself in my hand, no… no one could blame me if I'd need a replacement.

The holographic screen flickered before I slammed the thing closed. Crushing the sides of it for only a moment before the whole scroll repaired itself in my hand with a green light.

This… was concerning. What the hell was I supposed to do? Babysit the girl? And what the hell is Anoel thinking, giving me a job she knows I'm incapable of…?

She abuses the right she thinks she has by being the only person I actually consider listening to.

I kicked open the doors exiting the building designed for training and made my way out, letting the doors slam shut behind me as I made my way down the path. I was out early, beating the rush of students between mandatory classes as I crossed the campus and cut through courtyards.

"Take care of her…" I grumbled, denting a nearby pillar as I passed it, "She's sixteen."

I pushed through the rest of the column, letting the stones crumble to the ground as I waited for the ruble to lie still. _I guess I'll have to track her down…_ My thoughts came to a standstill as I lowered into a crouch, picking a broken piece of the pillar from the ground.

The wind quietly sifted through my clothes, drifting beneath the rim of my hat as I looked up and toward the city of Vale past the cliff's edge. _Running errands… you say…_ The stone crumbled to dust in my hand, pressed into spilling fragments as I stood back up and let the pillar rebuild itself.

"The next time you take a job, don't leave me with your self-claimed responsibilities," I muttered, resting a hand on the softly glowing reconstructed pillar and passing aura into it through my glove. The entire campus rendered into my senses, constructing itself in detail within my mind as a green light passed through its worldly connections.

Kitsuki's aura was suppressed in its entirety, her sound completely muted, and her motions were held. She was erasing her presence…

There was only one thing I needed to look for. I pulled more aura and sent another pulse through Beacon. The first sweep failed to locate her, which was impossible with only one specific exception. My aura crashed into the far edges of campus, stopping there after I found what I was looking for. Her tails gave her away.

I dropped my hand from the pillar before me and disappeared, making my way across the expanse of the campus with little effort before passing through the next courtyard and coming up on a large building. Classes were still being held inside, but I knew where she was.

She wasn't inside.

I tore my hand back and out to my side, pulling myself down into a low crouch before flooding my legs with aura, allowing the light to seep into the ground to reinforce the pathway beneath me before I leapt upward. The top edge of the five-story building flashed by in less than a second, letting me catch its ledge and use my momentum to flip over while reinforcing its masonry, repressing the sound of my landing to make it silent.

A small portion of the building protruded up on the back left corner of the roof, displaying a gray door at its center, glimmering clearly in the sun. The tension in its bolts told me it was locked, and its stairwell held no lingering heat… meaning she didn't use the stairs. The rest of the rooftop was clear, only making the several turning ventilation shafts and few skylights all the more apparent.

Slipping past each one, I made my way to the door and kicked up the bricks beside it. My boot found an easy footing as I gripped the top of the wall and pulled myself over in a quiet flourish of black cloth.

As soon as my feet made contact with the tallest part of the building, my eyes switched to the furthest corner to the right. It was empty, the whole roof was empty, but I made my way forward anyway and sat on the left corner of this smaller, higher portion of the roof below.

I sat there in silence for a few minutes, staring down over the edge my legs dangled from to the cliff below. The building beneath me sat at one of the edges of campus. The eastern mountain range spanned out passed that border of the school, and just beyond the outcrop of the cliffside swayed the stirring green canopy of the Emerald Forest.

I didn't blame her for coming up here. It was windy. A constant gale of wind pushed its way up the rocky outcrop of the cliff's face, rushing up over its edge before crashing into the building we sat upon and flooding up its walls too.

We sat at the tip of an extensive ramp, basking in an ocean of rushing air due to the winds sweeping over the vast mountains in the distance and riding the valleys and forests between them and Beacon.

It was familiar territory… for a kitsune of the wind.

"You don't have to get up on my account," I said evenly, letting my voice carry itself and take precedence over the traveling winds.

It took another few moments, but eventually I turned to see her sitting on the corner of the building, where I looked previously. Her eyes weren't on me anymore, one leg was up on its ledge to help her stand… but she quietly slipped that back down to get comfortable again.

Her eyes were on the mountains in the distance, the trees below, her small boots dangling over the edge beneath her. They weren't ever on me, not since I got here. Her tails waved in soft motion behind her, swaying in the slightest of movements in the waking wind as they fanned out to catch its tide.

One hand rested in her lap, the other, her left, held her long strands of hair delicately behind her human ear, letting me at least see her face. Her white fox ears were up, perked in the wind as each furry appendage fluttered pleasantly before the forceful gale riding up from below.

"How much control do you have?" I asked, watching as her eyes flicked toward me for a moment. Golden-orange in color, each dancing with glimmering light like waking suns, both set beneath white, long flowing hair and detailing an elegantly pale face. No wonder Anoel liked her so much. She gave off the very impression of innocence and endearment.

It was the kind of cuteness you found in a child. A child you wanted to coddle, only with this case… it came in a package. She exuded adorableness like a radiant star, but she also took on the looks of a petite, attractive girl with a gently developed body, more lithe and curvy than exaggerated in any way.

She was a forbidden beauty, something to be protected rather than taken. I didn't think I could ignore her like I'd planned… but I don't need to interact with her beyond the minimum. I'd rather not get tangled in a mess like that.

Her eyes eventually grew guarded, and her look took on a suspicious curiosity. Her fingers still held her hair gently behind her ear, but I knew it wasn't necessary, given what I could sense.

The wind wasn't moving naturally. The wind was fond of her, and her fond of the wind, a mutual relationship of trust and partnership. It was a devotion between element and aura user. It would do anything for her, bend itself to her will, hers alone, and sacrifice itself for her to continue living.

She possessed an Affinity Fragment.

Every simpleton in the world who knows about aura knows it's at least derived from the soul, a manifestation, some would say. Each individual on this planet has the capability to conceive aura, most aren't physically or mentally capable to even attempt to bring it out.

A gene exists in everyone's DNA that allows for the manipulation of energy personalized to each specific user. This gene is a descendant, a deviation, of an original gene that came into existence in the earliest stages of evolution.

The world was harsh, cold, and teeming with Grimm. Life needed to find ways to survive, and with the incorporation of Dust came the necessity to gain control over the crystals and their vast elemental properties.

Aura was the trigger, and humanity pulled it to crawl their hides out of the closing jaws of extinction and overwhelm the Grimm hordes by sheer force.

Those were the earliest stages of this aura gene, and they were the most powerful versions. The originals, they were as raw as the gene got. Every version, every deviation past those original genes, branched out in directions inconceivable by mortal minds.

They all came from two original sources, two opposite ends of the spectrum, Void and Aether, and from there… they granted all descendants the full ability to generate and manipulate aura to varying extents and purposes.

Then the Affinity Fragment was discovered.

These original genes bore the highest of powers, exuded the greatest of immeasurable auras, and cycled with the greatest of efficiency between itself and the user it was contained within. But, above all else, the original genes were conceived for one purpose… and one purpose only…

Dominion and control over the elements of Remnant's bounty.

Dust was the main reason aura was conceived, and through the elements of Dust were these genes evolved and developed. This direct link created a vast tree of original genes, each with a single, powerful connection to a specific element among the several colorful Dust crystals spanning throughout the depths of Remnant's earth.

These were known as Affinity Fragments, deemed by an ancient culture to be harbingers of Remnant's guidance as if the planet was a benevolent deity gifting them with the powers of nature. These fragments were the only genes to remain unchanged as the centuries passed and civilization prospered.

You were lucky to be born with a direct ancestor, let alone a gene of the exact same makeup of its original bearer.

I was looking at the only wind user in the world, and due to that fact, subsequently the most powerful as well.

Affinities were elemental based and held immeasurable power, granting the user a direct connection to every aspect of its related field of power. Kitsuki was likely capable of generating her own wind with her aura, absorbing the force of external air to increase her own aura capacity, bend external currents to her liking, and cast her senses through its reaches.

No, these affinities don't stop there, they never stop there, nor are they the same as semblances derived from aura. Controversies arose and continue to rise in the scientific community over which was stronger, an Affinity or a Semblance. Studies were rarely conducted given the rarity of ever finding more than one affinity user in one place, so the answer was never found to be believably accurate.

They were only capable of ever discovering one affinity user, and that was out of sheer luck. Affinity Fragments lay dormant until invoked into action through an evolutionary trigger of absolute necessity and a very real, highly fatal danger to the life of the user.

It was no wonder she woke her affinity… with a past like hers.

"You're capable of more than you lead most on to believe," I continued, letting her confusion settle as her gaze slowly took me in again. Her eyes met mine for a brief moment before reading my image, trying to get some bearing on who, or what, I was, "Your semblance is strong, I'll start with that. But you need to learn to control its field to encompass more than your direct surroundings. Your affinity, on the other hand, that's a closed book."

Insulting her was a bad call here, anyone would know that.

I slowly shifted, raising one leg up to the corner of the edge beneath me as I leaned back, lying down on the surface of the roof just behind me with one leg dangling over its edge.

"A book most would be too curious not to open," I continued.

Her gaze grew defensive again before she finally decided to sign something, letting loose some of her strands of hair. But as soon as she released them, I felt a shift in the wind and watched as they remained behind her ear, despite the rampant winds around us.

" _What are you talking about?"_ She gave me a look, something I interpreted easily. This wasn't the first time someone's asked her about something like this, and in most cases, that usually led to outcomes unfavorable for her.

Especially in a world of developing science and breakthroughs in the study of aura.

"I'm talking about this," I held up my right hand, Ahrulian's fabric already sparking with my aura as I sent a cluster of green light her direction. The emission of aura fluctuated for a moment before growing bigger, a threat she couldn't ignore, as it passed through the air between us with a burst of speed.

The wind tore it to shreds, letting small streaks of light drift away in fading wisps as she tucked a few strands of hair behind her ear again.

" _How did you know about it? I never used it… not even during initiation. Why were you able to sense it?"_ Kitsuki's gaze remained guarded, something I've come to expect from people who weren't Anoel. It was a natural response… to someone like me.

"I sensed it the same way I sensed the discrepancy in the wind on the east side of campus, alongside the unmistakable displacement of the air in the form of your tails," I explained, touching on the tactic I used in picking her presence out of the non-existence she used to blanket the school. I was hoping she'd learn how to fix that, now that she was aware of it, "Aura is a tricky concept to understand, so don't expect clear answers to questions like that."

" _You can sense something like that?"_ she slowly signed out, eyes adverting down the outcrop of masonry before returning to me, _"I hardly changed it."_

"You don't need to change the currents much. Nature has a stubborn way of being predictable. The smallest shift in normality is an immediate anomaly in the system," I returned, letting my hand catch the passing wind as the current slipped through my fingers, "Don't assume no one can sense you, it just makes you more vulnerable."

" _Usually no one can sense a change that small, let alone any change at all,"_ she signed back, eyeing me with more of a curious look now rather than the guarded one she was using before.

"I'm not like anyone else," I replied with an even voice, pushing honesty on her that was impossible to brush aside or doubt, "besides, I'm not up here to prove anything to you. Unlike most of the world, showing off isn't my forte."

" _What was that during initiation then?"_ She asked, eyeing me skeptically now, _"Wasn't that showing off?"_

I let my hand fall to my side as I turned my gaze toward her, "Those launch pads were hardly worth the time wasted waiting to go off. I'd rather just walk at that point." Besides, I needed to catch Ozpin's mild interest. If I managed that, which I did, then it was worth the bad reputation it spawned.

" _Mine worked pretty well, I guess,"_ she signed.

"That's because you're basically lighter than air when you want to be, and even when you don't want to be. You force an envy down so many women's throats you might as well accept it." My response was quick, something that caught her off guard considering the blush reddening her pale cheeks.

" _Nobody's envious of me,"_ came her small response, having the ability to look meek as she signed that out and turned her gaze slightly away from me.

Like hell nobody's envious of her…

Not many, at least. Cardin on the other hand, he can't see past her ears. And not in a good way, either. He's blinded by family ideals and a hateful past. Either that or it was just the way he was raised. And even then, it's hardly worth noting considering his parents most likely weren't around.

Who'd be proud of a kid like that? They probably left him with a sizable allowance, the freedom to do anything, and the skills to beat those weaker than him. He was a Winchester, heir to a noble family known throughout most of Vale.

They didn't have the best reputation.

"That's your own problem to decide, and whether or not you deal with it is up to you," I said, pulling the tip of my cowboy hat down slightly to rest my head on the stone roof, "Anoel and I don't solve people's problems unless we're paid to do it or it's on a personal level with either of us."

The message was clear. This bullying issue, if it kept up, which it undoubtedly would due to the target Cardin's painted on her tails, was going to be her problem to bear. Until either of those conditions were met, Ano and I would do nothing to stop it.

If she couldn't handle something like this, then being a huntress doing her duty on the wrong side of town isn't for her.

The world idolizes huntsmen. That's a given fact proven by the four kingdoms and the villages in between. But, not everyone shares that ideal. A poor experience in the past, an unsavory encounter with an arrogant hunter, a hunter who couldn't do their job well enough to make a difference, the expectations were high in this occupation.

Not everyone embellished this job in such a praiseworthy light.

If she couldn't handle that, then she needed to drop out of school and find something else to do. She can freelance, but no one likes freelancers.

I plan to do my own thing, be a freelancer, but with a… specific skillset. I'll be able to re-open my father's bar on the side, raise its reputation through the roof, and build a network of contacts like the old man did in his younger years.

He was known as the person who knew everyone and everything at one point or another. Nothing happened in Vale without him hearing about it. And, because of that, he was on most criminal's info-broker lists for high-end information. Most importantly, it was live information, meaning it was always recent.

That's where Anoel came in. She traded info at our bar. Unfortunately, for some reason or another, she started sticking around more often than not. And she admitted it wasn't for the business, either, despite her young age.

It was for something else I'd rather not think about right now since she admitted to something else too.

" _I didn't want either of you getting involved anyway. It pulls you into the spotlight, I'd rather not let that happen,"_ Kitsuki replied. I tried to find any disappointment in her voice, in her eyes, but was mildly impressed to find none.

She wasn't as fragile as I thought.

Ozpin assigned this kitsune to my team. I'd rather not worry about her more than I have to. But, given the situation, Ozpin's decision may have ruined her chances of becoming whatever she dreamed of being.

Once I got my hands on the information I came here for, I had no other reason to stick around in an institution built for breeding tools with weapons.

She's already without a partner, imagine what would happen if her team dropped out as well.

It was a problem, but it didn't warrant an immediate solution. Once we dropped out, given the year, she'd just transfer into a new team or run solo. Some students were forced to do that before, especially if members of their team died before graduation.

It wouldn't be the first time it happened… and it wouldn't be the last.

She'll just have to deal with it. Until then, I won't make this any harder than it has to be.

"Anoel makes other people's business her business," I responded, sitting up now as I turned toward her, "It's what she's good at. If she finds you interesting enough, that is. But you caught her interest with an incredible amount of ease," I pulled myself closer to her and got a predictably confused reaction out of her, "something very few people can do."

My voice had lowered now and I watched her bite her lip, hand pressing into the corner of the building just behind her as she leaned against it. I was right against her now.

Her tails made a move to slip between us, but I brushed them aside and flicked my hat up, clearing the obstruction by only half a margin.

"What piques her interest is no business of mine," I continued, trailing off before humming for a moment, keeping my eyes on her golden-orange irises. Her face was getting redder my the second, and I knew she was likely getting the wrong idea.

That was the point.

"On an ordinary day, that would be the case, but," I kept talking as I trapped her in her corner, "when an affinity user appears before me like this," I grazed my hand up her arm, slipping over the cloth of her light sweater and glancing my fingers across her milky shoulder, before applying pressure and easing her onto her back, "I can't help but take advantage of the situation."

I leaned down, pressing my arm over her side and trapping her against the roof now with my elbow supporting me on the small edge to her left. Her eyes didn't know where to look, mostly keeping track of my own lime green irises, before they snapped closed and I watched her tremble slightly with a burning blush.

Helpless, no response, acceptance, and a disconnection from reality.

No retaliation, not counter play.

I frowned at that, pulling my hat to situate it back into its normal position and pushed away from her, "You should value yourself more than you currently do, it'll save your life, and all the pieces of it that make you whole," I spoke up over the wind, her eyes squinted slightly after a small startled flinch came over her.

More confusion nestled into her gaze as her bright eyes opened again, her body shaking minutely as she looked up to me.

I didn't need to look at her anymore, so I made my way to the edge of the building and let the wind whip against the cloth of my trench coat, nearly ripping my hat from my head as I did so.

"The next time someone pushes themselves on you, if they try to take advantage of you in any way," I continued, holding out my gloved hand and letting the wind mold around my arm, "don't hesitate to blow them away. The wind is strong, but a strong enough hurricane can rip through the side of a mountain."

I turned my eyes back to her and leaned into the wind, letting gravity slowly take hold as I reached up and tipped my hat toward her in a farewell gesture.

"Defend yourself, or you'll force me to break the instigator for you."

I dropped and leveled the ground below by a solid four feet, sinking into it by half that. It didn't mean anything, matter was easy to reconstruct given its simplistic atomic structure. Stones, dirt, and grass shattered before pulling back together as I stood up, the ground fixing itself flawlessly as I suppressed my aura and disappeared from sight.

Aura could do a lot of things, I wasn't lying about that. But not all aura was the same, and not all aura was different, each signature customized itself to the person it stemmed from. Anything less or anything more than that was up to the user and the laws of relativity.

My aura just happened to surpass that realm of understanding.

I wasn't looking forward to my next destination, even after I started making my way toward it. I've heard the rumors, I've heard them all, mostly through Anoel. Everyone wanted to show up for something like this… someone like this… hell, even the slackers show up early for this class…

For a professor like that, even though she's late half the time.

I hear she wears a hat, like mine, and her class 'assistant' was a sight to see alongside her.

I could almost guarantee one thing, though…

Anoel probably looks better in a cowboy hat than she does.

* * *

 **Hmm, does anyone else think Niro's opinions are pretty subjective? He has a rather solid opinion on the world, which could blind him from certain other 'truths' that could be happening right in front of him.**

 **It's in his perspective, after all. Of course, his comments about his own power hold a lot of merits. His comments on the actions of others, though, can be argued.**

 **Affinity Fragments are my version of how aura users can bend the elements. It creates a connection between Dust, Remnant, and why something like Aura can ACTUALLY affect something mined from the depths of Remnant. I'll expand more on it when I can justify actually doing so.**

 **It's already a huge part of my main story, anyway.**

 **What a surprise, I'm bringing in yet another person wearing a cowboy hat. Because, well, why not? I swear this isn't what it looks like. She's actually an OC belonging to someone I'll mention in the A/N of the next chapter. And there's a reason why Niro wears his hat too. It relates to Anoel.**

 **Speaking of which, I wonder if Niro will** _ **actually**_ **consider the second half of Anoel's request. Heh, I guess we'll see.**

 **For now,** _ **Favorite**_ **and** _ **Follow**_ **.**

 **I look forward to seeing** _ **REVIEWS**_ **for this. You'll be introduced to a LOT of concepts of mine. Feel free to give me your thoughts.**

 **Cya XP**


	9. Caza

Rogue Huntsman

Caza

«»

There was a nevermore in the corner.

Its name was Lanza, or so the board said. Two docile, yet guarded red eyes lingered in a dull gaze on the lowest row of seats before it, pools of smoldering, bright red light shining as they swept back and forth in slow, methodical repetition.

Paranoia… or just a natural defensive response to a crowd. It's a docile grimm in a classroom, surrounded by half-wits in training with experience in the field of combat, each with a major in some concentration in the art of _killing_ grimm.

All it'd take is a sudden movement and one student with a twitchy finger to irrationally charge toward the adolescent creature on the ground floor of the classroom.

Pretty sure it was a male, but then again, juvenile grimm all look the same. In terms of this avian creature, however, the bridge of its beak and the shape of its body gave away its masculine biology.

The strategy worked, if it was even an attempt at such, to quiet a usually noisy room of pre-emptively dangerous, potentially armed, five to six-foot morons with developing degrees for poking black things with sharp sticks and pointed pieces of metal.

This is why Remnant has trust issues. We arm children with weapons of destruction, train them behind secluded walls of school superpowers with sticks so far up their asses they force all students to come out trained in both combat and the region's most… _prestigious_ , if not incredibly biased, cultural beliefs.

Atlas is the most infamous of the four. The kingdom shoves its militarized way of life down the throats of every student attending its academy.

So much for academics. Why not just raise an army…?

The world wouldn't take kindly to that notion, of course, but what of it? We're already raising armies to fight off the grimm in every school across the world.

And here we are calling them _schools_. We might as well call them what they really are. They're training grounds for soldiers to by used by those in charge.

Lanza's eyes swept past my lime green irises and stopped, narrowing its burning gaze as it took me in. Its beak scraped momentarily against the ground, clenching in a sudden rise of aggression.

Nobody sat within three seats of me, now nobody sat within six. It doubled the field of avoidance hovering over my head in mere seconds as the shuffling of bodies soon came to a stop. A small smirk formed across my greedy lips.

Looks like I have Lanza to thank for a little privacy-

The abrasive sound of shorts sliding smoothly across the bench to my right struck a chord in my ears before my mind recognized an invading presence at my side.

 _What the hell…_

"Yo."

Something soft, warm, and dainty poked my cold cheek. It wasn't as soft or as warm as the voice that accompanied it. It was lax, happily so, and was layered with small degrees of giddiness and nervousness.

She sounded carefree, which explained the fact she risked her life touching me, but there was more to her…

I glanced at her, a mild curiosity digging into my skull and implanting itself at the front of my mind. Her smile was real…

As real as one could make after practicing all their life.

"What's up? Sitting alone?" she asked, placing her cheek in her hand with a quiet 'hmph', bright purple amethysts for eyes twinkling at me with incredible depths of intrigue, curiosity, and…

Something else.

"I would be, if you weren't here," I replied, crossing my arms in a tight lock as I leaned back on the bench. My back pressed into the wall behind us, the base of the long desk on the next inclined level acting as my backrest.

"How far would I need to be for you to be alone?" she asked further, tilting her head and shifting where her long, cascading brown locks of hair fell. Throughout their flourishing streams lay streaks of dark purple, melding with the rest of her hair in an unnoticeable contrast.

"Further than you'd think," I muttered.

"Off campus?"

"Off-planet," I grumbled back, getting an amused grin out of her. I wasn't trying to.

"Well, seeing as how I can't leave the planet, looks like I'm stuck here. And since you won't be alone no matter how far I get, I'll just stay put," she shifted the balance in her arm, causing her tilted head and supported chin to move idly from side to side as she smiled at me.

Who the hell is she…

"Anyone can leave the planet. They just have to jump high enough," My response was more truthful than she probably thought. Though, something told me her mind wasn't exactly the usual… considering she was sitting next to me.

Every other student avoided me unless they were too naïve to turn away or directly associated with me academically.

Especially when I was alone.

The girl looked up in thought, staring at the ceiling as she hummed. Her gaze told me she was staring _through_ the ceiling with the way her mind started to wander, the focus in her eyes dulling.

"How high do you think that'd be? Wouldn't the gravity of the nearest planet pull you back down eventually?"

She was asking questions she didn't want the answers to, a strategy most dependent individuals drew upon when seeking social interaction.

"Bring whip cream and hold your breath, I'm sure you'll be able to propel yourself to the nearest ice cream space store with life-support."

"There's ice cream in space?!" She gasped… literally. Her shock told me one thing, her tone told me another. She was playing with me, skirting through the conversation like a professional ice skater in a rink with children and couples falling all over each other.

She knew what she was doing.

"All kinds. The asteroids are made of them, after all. They have stations that orbit like satellites and droids that mine passing debris, scavenging the frozen goods into storage units before transporting shipments down to Remnant." My tone remained even.

I was finding enjoyment in this, albeit the smallest hint of a twinge.

"Why didn't anyone tell me about this?!" her small hands suddenly found their way to my collar and tugged. The force she used was weak, only managing to shake herself back and forth as I remained stationary.

It's what happens when a mass of significantly larger proportions crossed paths with one minuscule in comparison. They always get trapped in the gravitational field emitted by the larger celestial body, and they either slingshot around its orbital barrier… or crash into its surface and eradicate themselves.

"Nobody told me ice cream came from space!" she exclaimed, eyes wide and almost teary, mouth open in shock and astonishment with a small trace of hurt due to the revelation I just threw at her and the fact no one told her before.

I turned my gaze away and let her decide whether or not it was still safe to be touching me. Then again, the image here wasn't exactly a favorable one. Here I was, an engaging, excited, cute girl sitting next to me who happened to be avidly talking to someone like me, someone who single-handedly crafted themselves a reputation of infamy from day one.

Her voice wasn't exactly the subtlest of voices, either. It was designed, forged to gain attention, to gather and flourish under the involvement of others. She seemed like the kind of person to cheer someone up.

Maybe I could use her to give Kitsuki someone to talk to…

"Why do you think it's so cold?" I asked, cementing the idea into her mind. If she was smart, she'd realize the vacuum of space didn't freeze anything, it just removed the production of heat from objects it contained.

It doesn't freeze anything, as the movies depict.

She gasped again.

"You're so right… it is cold!" her mind suddenly began turning, I saw it in her eyes, flicking back and forth as she came to realization after realization, "This explains everything!"

"It explains why you're so hyper," I returned.

"That too!" she replied with a quick, emphasized smack to the desk in front of her, "The drifting ice cream balls in space probably keep their form due to the pressure of the vacuum! And the removal of heat just keeps them in a constant state of a chilled, delectable treat of possible extinction!"

We were playing each other and putting on a show, it seemed. She was bouncing enthusiasm around like a plague, sweeping across the room and calming down the individuals worked up about the nevermore in the corner.

She was playing her cards in such a way to turn a bluff into a royal straight flush of the highest value possible in a game of go fish.

She used me to quell the tension in the room… no, not just quell it… she downright destroyed it.

Just… who was she?

All discomfort in the room had long since vanished, each now falling to varying degrees of amusement at this girl and the notorious prick engaged in a conversation so ridiculous, it might as well be reality.

She was a genius who plays the part of the fool.

"Now you know what killed the dinosaurs. An orbital bombardment of galactic ice cream balls large enough to wipe them into extinction and simultaneously introduce the ruptured world to the delectable treat found in every corner store across Vale," I turned my eyes back to her now after glancing toward Lanza, whose gaze still had yet to remove itself from my image.

"Poor prehistoric creatures… they never got to taste the ice cream…" she muttered in disheartenment, slipping her chin and cheek back into her palm as she squished her pretty face into its support, "Ice cream's like my life essence. I couldn't imagine living without it."

"Try dying every once in a while, you'll realize what you can and can't live without," I replied, taking the effort now to glance at her attire. She went through the effort of stopping the room from building enough tension to induce anxiety and the possibility of a festering fear, enough so that might have potentially set off the nevermore in the corner.

I might as well allow myself to recognize in case she appears again, but it wasn't like it'd be that hard.

Her elegant, smaller frame was captured in a black crop top, an article that'd ordinarily expose her pale shoulders if it all wasn't hidden beneath a black jacket with rolled up sleeves. They were only rolled up to her elbows, but the lack of bulkiness in the bunched up cloth told me it was a thinner material.

The tail of her jacket fell near where her shorts ended, length measuring slightly past them as it lay folded against the bench beneath her. Maybe she just wanted to look cool, or maybe it was just a preference…

Her shorts were black, fading down to a deep purple, before falling further into black tights and similarly colored combat boots. What was with people and wearing black… black was mine. Thankfully, in a display of pleasant contrast, she wore a white wide scarf delicately around her neck. Its ends were frayed and wrapped in a style to rest the majority of the soft cloth on her chest.

It was an ombre scarf with triangular like ends… she pulled the look off nicely.

"Have you died before? I don't think I have… maybe I did but I just can't remember it," she responded again, voice back to its demeanor of curiosity and engagement rather than its overbearing excitement.

"Once or twice," I said, turning my gaze back to Lanza.

Our professor still wasn't here. By academic rule, we'll be able to leave the classroom if she still doesn't show up within the next five minutes.

So much for the professionalism standards at the most prestigious academy in all of Vale.

"I wouldn't associate yourself with him if I were you," A cold, self-admired voice cut in from in front of us and to the side as a new arrival found her way onto the board at play. It was the voice of an heiress.

"Really? Why do you think that?" the girl beside me asked, turning her attention to the newcomer.

Weiss rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, fixing me with a glare that gave off a mild warning of 'leave this girl alone'.

I wasn't doing anything.

"He's bad news. So whoever you are, just don't bother with him. It'll only lower your status as a respectable individual," her words were as icy as her demeanor, or so she'd like to think.

"Oh, hey, we were just talking about icy stuff. Did you know ice cream comes from space?" the girl asked, giving the white-adorning girl before her a cheeky smile.

Somehow… someway… this girl was a genius in the art of playing people for fools… while being one herself.

"Oh dear god, please tell me you don't _actually_ believe that?" Weiss gave her an exasperated look, flicking another glare my way as the heiress's partner finally stopped standing around and poking her fingers together.

"Weiss… nobody knows where ice cream comes from, maybe they're right." Ruby took the side of avoidance, as usual, attempting to prevent two opposing forces from breaking their resolves and slitting each other's throats.

"No, you dunce! Ice cream comes from little dwarves in the mountains!" Weiss huffed and turned her attention to the red reaper beside her.

Her words were met with silence… well, one that could only last in a sea of muffled giggles and stifled laughs. Four students somewhere on the sidelines suddenly hit the floor in collapsed messes of choked flailing.

The heiress didn't notice.

"Weiss…" Ruby trailed off quietly, softly placing a reassuring hand on her partner's shoulder before giving her a reassuring smile, "That's ridiculous. Ice cream comes from space."

"No, it doesn't! The dwarves make it." Weiss replied with sureness, confident in her beliefs.

"Actually, I thought it came from cows." Someone new stepped in, someone I recognized as the person I sent away for uselessness during initiation. Her lousy pistol would never cut it in an aerial assault against two grown avian grimm.

Even if she used her ribbons.

"Blake, cows make milk, not ice cream," Ruby was quick to correct.

"Yeah, sis is right. Cows can't make milk _and_ ice cream. But, then again, I heard ice cream came from a Schnee's-" Yang was about to say something but she was stopped by something small and hard jamming into her ribcage.

Her little sister buckled her over in mere moments.

"W-what Yang was trying to say, was that our uncle told us ice cream was _made_ , yeah, made by those of, uh, of the Schnee family," Ruby rubbed her elder sister's back as she fumbled out her words in a mess of improvisation.

"Ruby, I can assure you, my family has no association to ice cream whatsoever. We are not dwarves, after all." Weiss's response was even and factual, something a dictionary would likely hear before tearing its pages out and lighting itself on fire for the homeless.

Yang shot back up with teary eyes and a partially red face. She was either restraining laughter or Ruby really did puncture her gut and the brawler was suddenly experiencing severe aura depletion, "I-I think we c-can all come to," she had to stop herself to catch her breath, wiping a literal tear away from her eye as she fixed her respiratory systems from seizing up, "an agreement that nobody knows where ice cream comes from."

"Well, _I'm_ sticking with the space ball theory!" the girl beside me kicked back as she made her claim, crossing her arms in front of herself as she flashed each newcomer a nervous, but engaging smile.

She almost seemed more nervous with them here…

Maybe the numbers played a larger role than the absurdity of a single individual's presence.

"You believe what you want to believe, just stop talking to the one next to you. He's more dangerous than you might think," came the heiress's response, switching the topic back to me.

I was content to sit this one out. Looks like my contentment was ruined.

The girl shrugged, "Doesn't really matter. We're all dangerous to different degrees, like you and your ice kabob and her with her melons." She nodded to Weiss and Yang, flashing each one a smile worthy of an award.

"It's more of an ice pick, really," Ruby added thoughtfully, not helping her partner's case of absolute disbelief.

This girl had a way of unhinging the heiress's jaw.

My eyes swept to the one in black, taking in a golden gaze regarding me out of the corner of her eye. She was already looking away by the time I glanced at her, but it was clear who she was keeping an eye on.

She moved down the row slightly before sitting down on the bench in front of us on the level just beneath our row, sitting in an attentive but guarded posture.

I didn't blame her, with ears like that.

"Call it what you will, but my Myrtenaster can still take a grimm down faster than your scythe," Weiss kept finding herself in a constant state of self-defense instead of continuing her warning to the girl beside me.

"I don't know about that. Speed is kinda my specialty," Ruby replied with a challenging smile, before I watched her slip around the heiress in a blur of red and rose petals. The world froze for her, but not everyone.

Some people paid attention, you know.

She stood proudly behind the heiress now as time resumed and the pocket of air she vacated less than a second ago collapsed in on itself, the air she pushed aside in her movements also doing the same as the heiress's hair whipped in Ruby's direction from the sudden rush of wind.

Icy blue eyes dashed to Ruby as the heiress narrowed them into a piercing stare, "Stop using your semblance so recreationally! It should be honed on the training grounds, not used to show off."

"This _is_ how I hone my semblance, Weiss," Ruby retaliated, giving her partner a swift flick to the nose before plopping herself with a satisfied hum next to her teammate in black. Eventually, Yang found her way around to Blake's other side and Weiss regarded the girl beside me one last time.

"What's your name, if you don't mind me asking?" She addressed, giving the girl a careful, meaningful glance, something that spoke more of caution than worry.

"Skyla, but people just call me Sky," the girl in the scarf replied, giving the heiress a playful smile.

She knew from the beginning what she was getting herself into.

The heiress nodded before turning slightly away, "My name's Weiss. Just," she regarded me with another quick glance, "Just be careful around him. He's… unpredictable."

"I will," Skyla replied, allowing the heiress to finally take her seat after a moment's hesitation.

It was one minute till we were allowed to dismiss ourselves from class with no repercussions. That was when two things happened.

The first was team Juniper literally diving into the classroom from a dead sprint through the doorway, sliding in heaps across the floor as each member panted heavily and scampered to their feet. The second… was the professor finally showed up.

And from the faint smell of alcohol on her breath behind the techniques she used to override it, she woke up to a morning bottle of scotch.

She was a well-built woman, something she was probably highly aware of. She was average height with waist length dark blue hair, pairing naturally with piercing dark blue eyes, and her head nestled beneath a black cowboy hat.

I didn't think she was above flirting with students, considering she was young, in her early twenties, and wore tight-fitting black leather pants and black leather heeled boots, each reaching her mid shins. Similarly, she sported a form-fitting tube top that revealed an ample amount of cleavage.

It was as unnecessary as her nevermore, considering the eccentrics of both.

And, just to spite me and this world of black clothes I suddenly found myself in, she wore a shapely, also very form-fitting, long, black trench coat.

I suddenly began to reconsider my own garb, considering how ridiculous I'd look in any proximity to this woman.

Little needed to be noted about her appeal to the eyes, considering nine more bodies suddenly hit the floor and the smell of blood poisoned the air.

I hoped they were dead. It's what they get for staring and fantasizing.

"Hello~" Her voice was too sultry to be a professor's, yet it wasn't enough to be a seductress's either. She was somewhere in the middle… and I doubt she was putting any effort to be, "My name is Professor Miralla, but I prefer you just call me by my first name."

Her name was Caza Miralla, an annoyingly fitting name to pair with her pet nevermore, Lanza.

Ozpin hired some… interesting individuals. By her aura levels, she was easily on a tier far above everyone in this room save for me. But, she was also on a level of authority that leveled itself from actually being _authoritative_ , straying so far away from a role of strictness it was as if Beacon's code of conduct didn't exist.

In fact, I'd rather that be the case, considering the code of conduct allowed the use of riding crops.

"Now, as some of you may have known or heard by now," Caza strolled over to her teacher's desk and leaned against its front edge, supporting herself just enough to cross one ankle in front of the other and place her hands softly on the surface at her sides, "this class teaches you how to survive, track, and navigate your way through unfamiliar and dangerous territories. And, additionally, how to engage grimm you've never encountered before."

Her words weren't the thing being eaten up by the majority of the students across the several rows of seats above, below, and around me. No, some were feasting on something else.

It wasn't the nevermore anymore.

"So," Caza clapped her hands and regarded the classroom in a sweeping gaze, "We're going on a little field trip. Leave your belongings, you won't need them."

She slipped away from her desk and made her way over to the door, turning only to say one more thing as Lanza got up as well and made its way across the room. Something some people noticed, but too few were attentive about anymore given its docile nature.

"Oh, and no stopping by your weapons lockers on the way, it's best you learn this lesson without weapons."

I got up while the majority of the classroom was still in mild confusion about going on a field trip. Their minds had yet to catch up with their eyes and ears, and even then, some sets of eyes were still mesmerized.

That fact was made clear when those I hoped had died suddenly shot up from the ground and rushed down to the ground floor.

The two teams who annoyingly associated themselves with me stood up as well and began making their own way down, and the one next to me stood from her spot soon after to walk down to the end of our row.

Nobody noticed Kitsuki in the back of the room, so I only spared her a momentary glance. She was already standing, but she seemed to be taking things slow to keep to the back of the pack.

Something I had already planned on doing.

* * *

 **The mystery of ice cream has been questioned, the existence of questionable dwarves, asteroids, and kabobs now under scrutiny in this vast empire of crooks and figureheads. Or, so they say.**

 **What? Didn't expect the illogicality of this chapter? Well, I suppose I should break something to you… this is RH, this is my side project of a culmination of OCs and concepts in any ways I see fit, including for the sake of 'why not' moments for hilarity.**

 **Anything can happen in RH.**

 **Of course, though, I still have my usual style and realism in here too.**

 **Looks like we're going on a field trip next chapter.**

 **Caza Miralla and Lanza are OCs created by 'The Baz', all credit of their creation goes to their rightful author. I'm simply using them under a special submission and in relevance to my main story. Read his stories, by the way, they're entertaining.**

 **For now,** _ **Favorite**_ **and** _ **Follow**_ **.**

 **I look forward to seeing** _ **REVIEWS**_ **for this. You'll be introduced to a LOT of concepts of mine. Feel free to give me your thoughts.**

 **Cya XP**


	10. Heated

Rogue Huntsman

Heated

«»

"Come on, Arex. You know you want to see me~" Anoel chimed into her scroll, strolling through the early streets of Vale and its darkest alleys.

" _I'm busy."_

The reply came as no surprise, "Busy with what? More projects of yours?"

" _Something like that."_

"You call that a reasonable excuse? Come on, how often do I visit?"

" _Almost every other day."_

"I could change that to every day if you'd like," Anoel's smile was apparent in every way, considering her demeanor caught the eyes of a group of passing men among friends. She slipped into an alley to avoid them and took a backway, skipping along before hopping a fence around the corner.

" _I'll change my address. I wouldn't put it past you to follow through with that threat."_

"Really? You'd hop across town, maybe even move Kingdoms, just to stop seeing me?" Anoel mocked a hurt tone as she sashayed through the dark corridor, moving past dark corners and dully lit rubble here and there with all the wit she possessed, mostly.

" _It's not seeing you that's a bother…"_

Anoel knew what Arex was insinuating, though, it helped that she already predicted the incoming answer anyway, "Oh, now come on, that's my favorite part _about_ seeing you!"

" _It's out of line in literally every way."_

"It's not! I do it to everyone!" Anoel pleaded with a smile, turning the next corner and walking down a larger back alley beyond it.

" _That's even worse!"_

"Okay, fine, I don't do it to anyone but you. You're special… well, maybe Niro too, but mainly you."

" _I don't know how I feel about that."_

"Happy, exhilarated, excited, warm, maybe a little fuzzy inside, take your pick, Arex. Draw a heart out of your deck of cards and show me an emotion."

" _They're already easy enough to see as it is…"_

"Body language is healthy, you know. Don't just leave it to your eyes to display your emotions all the time," Anoel slowed her pace now, taking her steps with an added hop as she approached a door at the back of one of the buildings along the alleyway.

" _What's so wrong with that?"_

"Nothing's wrong with it, but you'll never fly out of your coop if you don't try to crack your shell first," Anoel hummed with a caring tone, filled with affection, as she eyed the reinforced lock before her. It was half-digital and half-hardware. A keypad, eye-scanner, two deadlocks, and a reinforced titanium bar slammed into place and locked into a heavy metal door frame at the front of it all.

" _Not everyone's like you, all affectionate and forward. Some people are more reserved and introverted."_

It was specifically designed to only be unlocked by the right processes. Several fail safes were integrated into the rig, and several more triggered if the door was swung open without a final flick of a switch.

She was through in thirty seconds.

"Oh, don't be like that," Anoel spoke into her scroll one last time before closing it, ending the call with Arex as she kicked the heavy door closed behind her. She didn't notice the incredible wall of heat she just stepped into, let alone the superheated door at her flank.

Instead, her eyes were on something else while her senses were narrowed in on its reaction.

With a black scroll pressed to her ear, a girl only two years younger than herself glanced over her shoulder toward the door. A forge burned at her front, billowing orange flames with several glowing pieces of hot metal in its open confinement.

Long, fluttering black hair swayed at her back, the longest strands nearly reaching her waist. Pale skin shined in the light of the forge, and a thoughtful, yet slightly annoyed face stared back at her with an indifferent glare. It wasn't actually a glare, really, more like a knowing stare that suggested mild offense, but in an apprehensive way.

The girl adorned a loose, dark green, light sweater with its sleeves slightly rolled up for the time being. Its large neck hole revealed a pale nape and creamy collar bones, leading down to softly form around a thin, lithe body. It was a body that favored mobility over strength, but still displayed more curves than its owner probably ever wanted.

Her lithe legs were captured within sleek black sweatpants, sweeping down toward a pair of black running sneakers to accompany that undertone of mobility in the girl's attire.

That, or it all gave off a sense of casual comfortability.

Anoel gave the blacksmith a happy wave as the door clicked shut behind her, finally sealing the hot room off from the rest of the world as all the bolts, slides, and pistons shifted back into place in its unbeatable rig.

Of course, she had the password… after all.

"Hey, Anoel…" Arex sighed, closing her scroll and tossing it onto the large workbench at the center of the room. It remotely reconnected through proximity to the interior scroll within the table and resumed a song that was likely playing before, considering it was halfway through its runtime.

"Would it kill you to call me big sis?" Anoel asked, giving her little sister an insulted and abashed tilt of the head, "I'm not that bad, am I?"

Arex turned back to the forge, a move that hid her bright eyes from Anoel as the forger regarded her project once more. The materials inside were nearly glowing white, and in the next few seconds, they flared with a bright pale glow.

That was when Arex reached in and plucked one of the shining metals from her fire, tossing it into her other hand before grabbing a second.

"I could, but I fear that'd make you tease me even more," the girl confided, walking over to the hardened half of her custom workstation, what was used as her anvil, before placing the two pieces onto its surface.

"Teasing you is fun, I can't do it any more than I already do," Aneol said with an amused smile, strolling over to the opposite side of the workbench and placing her arms on it. Her eyes were fixed on Arex's own as she gave the girl a cheeky smile and leaned over, "So, whatcha up to?"

"A new alloy," Arex muttered, taking up a forging hammer and a sharpened cutting tool. She efficiently and delicately cut through the incredibly softened metal pieces before her, both of which maintaining their glow indefinitely for as long as the forger desired.

Anoel watched as the girl cut measured patterns into each piece, alternating between the two before Arex set aside her tools and took one of the pieces of material in her hands.

"Any reason why you're here?" the forger asked, flipping the piece over in her hands before lining it up with the other. She slowly slipped the grooves of the top piece into the patterns in the lower one, nesting them together perfectly as they fused with a bright orange glow.

"Can't I visit my little sister today?"

"You visited yesterday, so your arrival today is out of character, even for you. Which means," Arex turned back to the forge and placed the merged metals at its center, closing the door to its chamber a moment later as she turned back to her elder sister, "you probably have a reason for stopping by."

"Well, can my reason for being here just be that I want to see how much my only family member's grown?" Anoel asked, slipping around the workbench to pull Arex into her grasp. Instead, her delicate fingers only passed through the girl before her, causing a small shimmer in Arex's skin and clothes.

Anoel only smirked at that and turned away from Arex's hologram, spinning on her heel to grab at the air behind her, taking something solid into her hands as a suddenly red-faced Arex appeared in her arms.

"You need to learn how to hide your heat signature~" Anoel teased, locking the girl in her embrace as she wrapped her sister in a face-to-face, close proximity conversation.

Something that set off every warning bell Arex new of, considering all of the above was out of her comfort zone.

"I-I _did_ mask my heat signature…" came her soft reply, ending with her turning her gaze away.

"Not enough, sweetie," Anoel replied teasingly, pulling her cute sister further into her grasp and nuzzling the tip of her nose into Arex's blushing cheek, "you need to work on that semblance of yours."

"I've been too busy working on my other ones," Arex replied with a sigh, fighting her urges as she turned slightly back to her sister. Anoel took the small opportunity with a smile and brushed Arex's nose with her own, an excuse to get closer to the younger sister's eyes.

They were flashing between colors. Colors Anoel loved to see.

Burning orange and bright pink were the most common ones, flicking between those for the main sets of emotions while the rest were just a combination of nervousness and uncertainty. Orange was among her favorites to see on her little sister, considering it matched the blaze of a burning sunset and told her everything she needed to know about how embarrassed her sister currently was.

"Then stop slacking off and train your semblances a little more, it'll help you in the long run," Anoel gave her sister a small tilt of the head, watching Arex's breath get locked in her throat, "Besides, once you do, you can stop me from doing things like this."

"I have other ways to stop this," Arex countered, finding new places for her eyes to wander as she waited.

"Oh? New tricks?" Anoel hummed in intrigue, pulling Arex even closer now as she let a curious smile cross her lips, "Show me."

Arex bit her lip, taking a cautious glance at Anoel's eyes, "I'd rather not."

"Hmm, you know… I hear it's not uncommon for siblings to share a kiss every once in a while. In fact, I hear it's a custom among wealthy families in the northern kingdom to greet one another in such a way," Anoel leaned into Arex, pressing her body into the lithe, moderately curvaceous frame of the girl trapped in her arms, adding a sensual overlay to her visage and tone.

"I-I haven't tested them yet…" Arex responded meekly, eyes locked on Anoel's as she leaned back, but found a lack of ability to lean any further away.

"Now's a good a time as any, is it not?" Anoel asked, tilting her head opposite the girl's in her arms as she felt the forger's heat flare up, raising the temperature in the room even more, "Are you going to make your older sister kiss you just to force a new semblance out of you?"

"N-not really my decision h-here," Arex forced out in a mild whimper, heart throbbing to the tune of her music still loudly playing over the sound of the forge at their side.

"It partially is," Anoel continued, keeping her voice to a level of sultry she reserved for people she loved to tease, including Niro, "We were born with a lot of similarities, Arex. But sexuality… was not one of them. Though, I don't mind giving you a little smooch just to spark something in that mind of denial you have…"

The info-broker let her voice trail off as she leaned in closer, bringing their noses back into nuzzling range before going beyond that by a little more.

"What do you say, wanna be like the northerners for a few seconds?" Anoel asked with one final teasing smile before letting her eyes go half-lidded, then she tilted her head a little further than it already was.

Arex's finger's tightened in their already firm grip on Anoel's sleeves, eyes refusing to avert even slightly as she was having trouble maintaining her aura, affinity, and heart rate. Her cheeks nearly reached a new record of redness, and it was only rising to new heights as Anoel closed the distance between them.

The thief watched closely as Arex snapped her eyes closed and held her breath, a cute little reaction to what she was doing. But, it wouldn't stop her from forcing another option into Arex's actives. So, she reduced the distance between their lips to zero and pressed forward into… nothing.

Her arms suddenly collapsed against her own body as the girl trapped within them disappeared, winking away in a bright flash of white, wispy light, forcing her to take a stumbled step forward from the change of weight distribution and balance.

 _Teleportation?_ She quickly narrowed in on the reappearance of the incredibly heightened heat signature of her sister and turned to her right, finding Arex panting by the door with a hand pressed against her chest.

Anoel could sense a major drop in the girl's aura reserves, which only suggested the use of that semblance takes a large effort to perform… for now.

"See! That wasn't so hard," Anoel commented, pulling herself up onto Arex's workstation to take a seat on its edge, "You just needed a push, and boom, now you can teleport. Whose is that, anyway?"

"Y-your-" Arex took a shaky breath, taking a moment to indulge in two more to try and calm down slightly before continuing, "your c-curiosity… is unrivaled and-" she took another breath, but her blush remained across her once pale cheeks in a permanent sea of pink, "incredibly annoying."

"It's my job to be curious, honey," Anoel returned, kicking her feet idly as she let her younger sibling calm down, "Besides, now I get to tell you why I'm actually here."

"C-couldn't you just start with that?" Arex asked, giving Anoel a hard, emotionally backed, and mostly embarrassed glare. Something the elder sibling was quite proud of seeing.

"I _could_ , but where's the fun in that?" Anoel smiled, placing her chin in her hand as she enjoyed every moment of _breaking_ her little sister's usually impregnable indifference.

Arex closed her eyes and took one last deep breath, letting it out slowly as she took a step toward the door and pressed her back to its surface. She used that to slide down and take a seat on the ground, keeping one leg bent while the other went straight out in front of her.

"Why are you here, Anoel? Other than to tease me about my… preferences," Arex didn't want to bother with any particular wording right now, but with that, she felt it was safer to just continue to leave it vague.

Anoel let her head tilt once again, using her arm to support her chin as she flashed Arex a cheeky grin, "Team ELA's looking for a fourth member."

* * *

Jaune looked terrified.

Quite frankly, I was half-tempted to kick him over the ledge.

We were at Beacon's cliff side again, staring out across the distant Emerald Forest below as a gale of wind rushed up from the sea of leaves beneath us. The rocky outcrop we stood on wasn't exactly the tallest thing in the world, but the fall would easily kill any normal person who slipped over the cliff's edge.

"Now, I'm sure you all had landing strategies during initiation. But, of course, that was with your weapons and equipment," Caza explained, her voice easily carrying itself to the ears of the large class before her, "Your first assignment of my class is to survive this fall, but without any assistance from external mechanisms. You are only allowed to use your body and your aura, any violation of that rule will result in an immediate failure of the task at hand."

She gave us free reign over aura… she was going easy on us. I'd place a large chunk of lien down on the fact this won't be the only time we did this. In fact, I guarantee we'll be forced to do this without the use of our aura later on.

"Is anyone here feeling confident enough to give us a demonstration of what I expect of you?" Caza asked, sweeping her gaze across each of us in scrutinization and challenge.

I ignored it.

"Nobody?" Caza asked with a raised brow, casting her eyes across us one last time. Her eyes seemed to remain on me for a little longer than I deemed as normal before she turned and looked elsewhere, "Mister Dante, would you care to be our demonstration?"

I followed her gaze and found someone I recognized from earlier. He was the one that wanted to challenge me in Goodwitch's class, but Yang won out over his hand.

He stepped forward after exchanging glances with his team, consisting of incredibly bland colors. They all wore mainly white, leaving black to accent their attire in individual ways. Two of them looked too young to even be here, considering they looked to be a year younger than Ruby, who was fifteen.

Just because toddlers can wield a little knife before they can take their first step doesn't mean Ozpin should be accepting children so young just based on skill. There was a fine line between bloodlust and mentally _breaking_ someone with images of death and savage desolation.

The younger they are… the worse it gets.

They looked like siblings, considering they were twins. One boy, one girl. The third member was that kitsune I took note of in the arena, and lastly, was the one called Dante taking his strides to the cliff side of Beacon's edge.

I had a sudden hope that he'd somehow die in this fall.

"So then, nothing but body and aura?" He asked, standing at the edge and gazing down the outcrop below.

"That is correct," Caza replied, crossing her arms as she watched.

"Well, at this height, aura isn't exactly needed. Would it be breaking the rules to go without it?"

I didn't know if he was trying to be arrogant or innocent, but in some way, somehow, he suddenly pissed me off. I felt irritated just looking at him and the aura exuding from his skin… his white hair, chin length, fluttered annoyingly perfectly against the wind rushing up from below.

His bright sky blue eyes were trained over the edge, a color that would've been unique if the two twins of his team didn't have the _exact_ same irises.

He wore a white button-up coat, its tails lightly tossing about behind him in lengths that would've reached his calves if they stood still. Black trim patterns adorned his coat, along with black buttons. Beneath the coat, he wore gray jeans and black running shoes, each with white soles.

He had a fascination with a balance between the colors… a very annoying fascination.

I knew what kind of person this teen was. And immediately, with only 23 words spoken, I already found him aggravating in every way. It was easy to tell he could perform this fall with little to no issue at all. And that's without aura.

His persona seemed perfect, almost too perfect, like whoever created him wasn't adverse enough to know what a _weakness_ was. Like they wanted to create a world where this character won in every regard, every instance, and never failed to do what was right.

A character of sympathy, ingenuity, intelligence, strength, power… and above all, ultimately unbeatable given enough time and training.

As if _existence itself_ was supposed to regard him as some sort of important person.

It pissed me off.

"Without aura? I won't allow you to potentially kill yourself, Mister Dante, if that's what you're asking for," Caza replied, fixing Dante with a critical gaze.

"I don't mean to be rude, but I'm sure I can handle it. I know where my capabilities lie. Falls like this are nothing. I've done them several times in the past without aura, and several more at even greater heights," Dante explained, taking a step back as he glanced at our professor.

Oh just kill yourself already.

"Very well, I expect you to be successful then," Caza gestured to the cliff side as Lanza clawed his way over to the cliff's edge.

It was her version of a safety net, by my assumption. Jaune was going to need that bird to save him… after I kick him over the edge myself.

For now, I watched as Dante nodded and took a step back, before moving forward and dropping over the edge. Most of the students stepped forward to watch, I remained behind with Kitsuki at my side. I didn't hear the satisfying crack of bones like I wanted to… Instead, I heard a soft thud of sneakers followed momentarily by a couple steps.

To anyone else, they would've been silent, but to someone with any senses to their name… they were louder than gunshots.

Speaking of gunshots, where's the nearest anti-materiel rifle? I need one to pop him in the head.

"First student passes with flying colors. Anyone willing to follow up the demonstration?" Caza asked, turning to the class once more.

One by one, members of the group began to drop off. All of them used their aura, a luxury none of them wanted to drop like Dante did voluntarily at the start. His team had already dropped down after him, being the only ones to choose not to use their aura either.

I didn't know if they were proving a point or just following their leader, but in any case, I didn't find them nearly as aggravating.

My fox was cuter.

"U-uh, professor? I'd, uh, I'd like to take a pass on this assignment… if that's alright with you."

I turned my gaze to the one who spoke. Though, I really didn't need to. It wasn't like Jaune's voice was that hard to distinguish from the rest of them. It was just one of those voices…

"Mister Arc, backing out was not an option. You either jump and land on your own, or you jump and flail until Lanza catches you in his claws. The first step is always taking the leap," Caza shut him down, but I had hoped she would've left her safety net a secret for a little longer.

Though, it was already needed a couple of times for some students too nervous to be even slightly confident in their abilities.

Jaune was the king of them all, in that regard.

"I-I just don't think this is a good idea. I mean, I'm not exactly an aura master or anything, but I don't think I can do this. Can't I just find another way down?"

"You must jump, Mister Arc."

"What if I had a rope with me?" Jaune suddenly pulled out a coil of 200 feet of rope and hauled it up onto his shoulder, "Can I climb down with this?"

"Mister Arc… where were you hiding that coil of rope?" Caza asked, narrowing her eyes to keep them from going wide in mild shock.

"With my grappling hook?" Jaune asked, rather than answered, as he pulled out a four-pronged hook and attached it to the end of his rope.

Caza had to take a step to her left to try and look around the guy standing at the cliff side, struggling to see where he was pulling any of this from.

The kid came prepared, I'll give him that. Too bad the 200 feet of rope and the metal hook will only make him fall all the harder… especially after I took initiative here and stepped behind him, then proceeded to kick him over the edge with a satisfying thunk.

His screaming and flailing probably attracted every grimm in the area, but it was worth it. I'm hoping something big shambles out of the forest and tears the white prince down there a new one. Either that, or it'll just show me how much power he truly has… if he's even willing to show it.

Caza gave me a cautious glare while I watched Jaune plummet, and as predictable as the morning sunrise, I saw a strong pull of _someone else's aura_ take hold of his metal grappling hook to slow his decent.

He made it to the ground seemingly on his own with a small amount of reduced velocity, enough so to allow him to buckle and role once grounded.

Pyrrha needs to mind her own business… or her assistance will get the kid killed in the end.

"Mister Ezdeil, was that necessary?" Caza asked, but I disregarded the pointless authority in her tone. It wasn't real, anyway.

"It was, actually. We're tight on time, considering our condensed presence has attracted several wandering grimm from this side of the Emerald Forest. The other side has been cleared during initiation, but you happened to choose the one that was still infested," I looked down below and let Caza take note of some of Dante's teammates entering hand-to-hand combat with some lesser creatures of grimm on the forest floor.

I then switched my gaze to the professor at hand.

"So, out of _necessity_ , I sped up your slow process of student evaluation. Besides," I turned and watched Kitsuki slip over the ledge and glide down to the ground below, falling in a slow, gentle descent as the wind carried her to a soundless landing, "we're just about done anyway."

I was the last one.

"You seem confident in your ability, much like our demonstration. Care to restrict yourself as well?" Caza wondered, stepping closer to me as I glanced over the edge once again.

"Like hell I'll ever do the same thing your _demonstration_ did," I growled, then took a step forward and let myself fall.

I didn't just let gravity take hold. I forced enough aura to condense within my body to _enhance_ it. So much of it was forcefully culminated within every part of my being that I forced the downward acceleration of gravity to quadruple, then scaled it up exponentially from there.

I didn't stop accelerating until I broke the sound barrier, then beyond even that as I continuously shattered the rules of terminal velocity and caused my own force of nature to take hold.

None of this mattered, absolutely none of it. I was fed up with all of it, and for some reason, I kept finding myself blaming _him_. I didn't want to be here, I didn't want to be anywhere near him, and I _certainly_ wasn't going to _copy_ _him_.

This was a show, an anti-climactic story of students throwing themselves over the side of a cliff.

Well, let me be the first to tell you…

I didn't just _break_ the forest floor, I _destroyed_ it. Cracks ruptured straight up the cliff behind me and the ground beneath me caved in under my feet, cratering from the sudden pressure of an impact equivalent to a tungsten alloy rod fired from an orbital satellite at a descending velocity that exceeded Mach 85.

That number equated to nearly 95,000 mph, or about 65,000 mph less than the top velocity of a meteor.

I needed to blow off steam, and what better way than to wipe out another infestation of grimm so willingly sacrificing themselves just by merely entering my presence.

The ground didn't stop caving in, in fact, I had to reinforce it to make it stop. The result was a shockwave through the fabric of matter within the surface of the Emerald Forest's forest floor. A destructive, heavily damaging sonic wave surged through the thin layers of dirt and roots as it rushed out, avoided all students, and ripped the flesh and bone from every grimm in any vicinity from here to the mountains several miles away.

I was done with this. I was done with everything today, and I was done with everyone.

With a wide birth around me that I made personally by throwing all students too close to the impact zone out of the way, I allowed the ground to fix itself as the floor of the forest illuminated in a sudden storm of electric, flashing lime green light.

Every crack, ever shattered tree, every stone turned to dust, everything repaired itself to the state it once held before my impact as I stood up from my crouch.

Pissing me off was a bad idea in _every_ regard, but this… this was just irritating. I was irritated, and I didn't know why.

So I just ignored everything and walked away, leaving a stunned class behind… and another section of grimm-less forest in their midst once again.

Kitsuki can find her way back to the room on her own.

* * *

 **Well, I guess you know where Anoel went now and what she has been up to.**

 **Rule number one of Rogue Huntsman, never give Anoel something to tease you about. Especially if she can use her allure to accentuate the already embarrassing effect of the teasing at hand. Rule number two, please try not to poke a certain someone with a stick, no matter how long it is.**

 **I personally guarantee no world, dimension, reality, or void will save you from its freshly baked cookies. And by that, well, what do I mean by that?**

 **I don't know anymore, let's try it and find out.**

 **Heh, more new characters. Arex and Dante, but Dante is from a story called 'Hero of Remnant' by a good friend of mine. He goes by the name 'andy2396'. He's also recently released a second story called 'Hero of Remnant: Veil of the Aether', which I recommend reading in case you're interested.**

 **Of course, he knows that I had every intention of bashing on his character. However, I never quite informed him of how I was going to do it. I just told him Niro was going to hate the guy.**

 **XD, I'll be having a** _ **lot**_ **of fun with this. And don't worry, he doesn't mind. He actually finds it to be an entertaining idea. He's still completely in the dark.**

 **He has no idea.**

 **For now,** _ **Favorite**_ **and** _ **Follow**_ **.**

 **I look forward to seeing** _ **REVIEWS**_ **for this. You'll be introduced to a LOT of concepts of mine. Feel free to give me your thoughts.**

 **Cya XP**


	11. Neighbors

Rogue Huntsman

Neighbors

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"I'd… rather stay here…" Arex slowly replied, brushing stray strands of ebony hair out of her face as she leaned her head back.

Anoel watched her sister tuck her hair behind her ear a moment later, burning orange eyes still regarding her from the other side of the room as she waited, "Are you sure?"

"Well, yeah. I've sorta made a business here," Arex replied, tilting her head to look around the room, "People buy my weapons and the bakery's doing well, more and more custom orders are coming in by the week."

"All of that severely cuts back on your training, though," Anoel sighed, tapping her fingers against her slender cheek, "You have a semblance, but you don't use it."

"I don't have to," the girl replied quickly, "It's not like I need to, anyway. I'm proficient enough as it is with it."

"You used 40% of your aura just tapping into _one_ of your semblances in your reserves. You call that proficient?"

Arex donned a meek smile, "Good enough?"

"Hardly," Anoel hopped off the workbench and planted her feet on the ground, "How do you think I'd feel if you ever got into a confrontation and lost? Or worse…"

"I'll be fine, Anoel. I may not be proficient with my semblance, but my affinity-"

"Isn't going to save you against certain foes," Anoel interjected, crossing her arms beneath her chest and shifting her weight, "You may be capable of a lot of things with your fire manipulation, but you aren't going to get far without your semblances falling in line with your affinity on the side. They need to resonate, not clash."

Arex let out a slow breath, finding a few rebukes in her… but she knew how much merit her sister held. It was just…

She never liked change.

"You want me to go back to Beacon with you…?" Arex asked, running a swift hand through the strands of her hair out of habit. Anoel gave her sister a curt nod before the younger girl continued, "Isn't there an initiation phase? How would the headmaster take it if you dragged in a new member of your own?"

Anoel just smiled, "He was the one who gave me the 'go ahead' when requesting permission to start recruitment."

"He did?" Arex asked skeptically, getting another nod from Anoel, "Proof?"

A quick reveal of a thread of messages between Anoel's scroll number and an administrative account were enough proof for Arex to believe her sister.

"Why me?" Arex asked softly, "You could go find anyone else, anyone proficient and actually skilled. What's the point in dragging me along? I'm just a-"

"Baker? Cook? Blacksmith?" Anoel walked up to her sister, an action that caused the younger girl to pull her legs up and against her chest, "Do you _really_ think I believe that… even for a second?"

"You could pretend to," Arex offered, giving one shoulder a small shrug.

"I refuse to," Anoel crouched down and brought herself to the eye level of her sister sitting against the door, "You're so much more capable than this. You just haven't had the opportunity to test yourself."

"I've never wanted to…" Arex trailed off, lowering her voice as she let the last words slip from her lips, "What if I hurt someone again?"

"I'll be there this time to stop you if you do," Anoel spoke softly, dropping all hints of anything superficial in her tone and emotions. Leaving everything genuine behind, all for her sister, "You were born with an affinity, sis. You have so much more potential, so much more than I can ever dream of reaching. You can't just chain yourself down like this after one incident."

"She didn't survive, you know…" Arex muttered, turning her gaze to the floor and off to the side, "I went to visit, to see if she was getting better. For a long time, I thought she was… until…"

Anoel gave the girl a sad smile, "You were only trying to protect her."

"I ended up doing the opposite…"

"There was nothing else you could've done," Anoel sighed, pushing the front of her hat up completely as she rested her hand on Arex's leg, "Fire can be the hardest thing in the world to truly control. And when it draws strength from your emotions as much as it pulls from your aura, it can be nearly impossible," she gently tucked some freed strands behind Arex's ear, "Not unless you let it grow with you. Let it fester inside you as you train it, it'll be easy to control if you give it a chance."

"Can you control it… if I can't…?" Arex quietly asked, pure white irises taking hold in her eyes.

It was the color Anoel hated most on her sister…

She was afraid.

"Until you surpass me, I can guarantee it," Anoel responded, turning her sister's face toward her own, "You have my word."

Anoel's word was the strongest pact the two could possibly make, even if it meant risking her own life.

Arex slowly drew in a shaky breath, pulling her chin away from Anoel's fingers to dip it downward, "Thank you… when do we leave?"

"As soon as I get a kiss from you."

Arex immediately pushed back against the door and held up her arms, "I-I thought we were past that!"

"Oh?" Anoel hummed, tapping her chin for a moment before leaning forward, her sister once again finding herself trapped, "I never had _any_ intention of dropping that little pleasantry I can squeeze out of you. You'll probably enjoy it…"

"A-and what about y-you?!" Arex replied, "Y-you wouldn't even care."

"You're right, but that's just because I'm not the one between the two of us who's into girls," Anoel responded with a cheeky grin, "Of course, that doesn't mean I don't love you."

"This is completely different!" Arex nearly let her voice fall into a quiet squeal, finding Anoel's delicate hands placing themselves on her pulled in knees.

"Honey, this is Remnant, we outnumber men two to one. They have laws in place that allow polygamy… and so much more…" Anoel slowly pushed Arex's knees apart, sneaking into her sister's guard before she could find the strength to close her legs, "Which means even the wives can love each other."

Arex bit her lip, her hands pushing against the ground at her sides all the harder as she felt her sister's body push up against her own, "W-what about-"

"Incest is legal, Arex. You should've done your research," Anoel lowered her voice into the husky, rich tone she used before, letting each word slip out in a breathless whisper, "Our population's too small and too at risk to restrict any possibilities for reproduction. Anything goes."

Arex's blush was steadily rising, unaffected by the simultaneously rising heat in the metal door against her back, "B-but that d-doesn't mean you have to… d-do this… with me…"

"Arex…" Anoel slowly breathed out, tilting her head as she leaned forward, nipping Arex's ear with her soft lips, "didn't I tell you that I love you?"

* * *

"I'm back!" Anoel's voice called through the door, something I was aware of forty-five minutes ago the moment she stepped foot back on campus. Her self-indulgence in an unnecessary introduction was accentuated by the door unlocking and swinging open, revealing herself in the doorway.

She had a girl in her arms.

"You lied," I grumbled, tipping my scroll in her direction as she took a step inside. She dropped a large duffle bag by the dresser, followed by a setup of newly washed bedding.

One glanced showed it to be completely black with minor lime green detailing.

I returned to what I was doing as I felt her shrug, but my eyes were busy reading my screen to look back at her, "Eh, things just went more smoothly than I thought they'd go. Honestly, I thought it'd take more convincing…"

"It probably helped that you kidnapped her," I returned, hearing the door swing closed and Anoel take her strides to the furthest bed to my right.

There, she laid the girl down to rest, taking the newcomer's sneakers off a moment later before resting them at the foot of the bed.

Kitsuki sat quietly on own her bed between the two of us.

"She agreed before she fainted, which means this was a voluntary offering of her body to the mercy of my will," Anoel replied curtly, taking her new strides with an exaggerated sway of the hips. Something she did when coloring her words with needless sexual connotation.

"Why is Arex here?" I asked, flicking through my scroll. There weren't any active jobs today, none that were lucrative, anyway. Most of it was petty thievery, reconnaissance, a couple package drop-offs, but nothing involving the killing of anything.

Those were always the fastest… and paid the most.

"She's our new teammate… for now," Anoel slipped in those last words as she made her way over to her own bed.

It wasn't until I felt something large begin to get dragged across the room… then proceed to seal itself against the edge of my bed that I gave her a questioning look.

"What are you doing?" I asked, looking past the blackness of my sheets and blanket to the black and gray sheets of my partner's bed.

It was pushed against mine.

"Well, seeing as Kitsuki's got herself a sleeping partner now, I figured I might as well claim you as my sleeping partner to keep the room symmetrical," Anoel punctuated her sentence with a patting of her hands, as if they were dusty from all the work she just did.

She then pushed Arex's bed against Kitsuki's on the other side of the room.

Kitsuki probably didn't even know what to say right now… she was likely going to decline all of this, considering she only let Anoel sleep with her the first night due to a storm.

I was wrong.

" _Are you sure she'll be okay with it?"_ Kitsuki signed out, watching Anoel walk back and forth inside their dorm room from her frost-white sheets.

"Oh, trust me. She'll be okay with it. She likes cuddling by the way, so don't be afraid to get acquainted," Anoel replied with her trademarked cheeky smile.

Something was entertaining her… entertaining her greatly.

My luck seemed to be running low today. First, Yang challenged me to a duel. Something I was hoping to put off until later… but that'd only make things worse. I got her worked up during initiation and made her fear for her sister's life in my hands.

I had no intention of getting involved at all… had it not been for that one feather. Everything deserved to die after that.

It played out as well as I hoped, in the end. I caught the headmaster's eye like a pyre's towering flame on a dark sandy shore, which is near impossible to look away from until it's reduced to solemn ashes.

That was what I was banking on. Now that I was in his sights, it was going to be easy to convince him I was worth keeping… which was more than enough leverage to threaten, something I can push at a later date by leaving the Academy.

I'll either be pushing his hand… or earning his trust. Either way, I'll get what I came here for.

Nothing else mattered, but I wasn't going to be responsible for the death of other students. If they were dying on the field, that was fine. That's the claws of grimm and their own inconsistent abilities.

But because of me, directly, was not acceptable.

Her hatred toward me was only going to fester. And sooner or later, Yang was going to get either herself or people around her killed due to what I did.

Her beating on me was the simplest solution.

And she enjoyed it.

" _Do you really think it's okay for her? I don't even know her… but I get the feeling that I do. Why is that?"_ Kitsuki signed out meekly, taking small glances to the girl on the bed against her own.

Anoel waved her hand dismissively, "Arex has that effect on a lot of people. She's really easy to get close to and befriend. She just has that air to her… due to no small effect from her affinity, of course. It's partially because of the passive heat that flicks off her skin all the time."

" _She has an affinity?"_ our kitsune quickly signed out, her fox ears noticeably perking up to new heights as I saw all three of her tails begin to move.

"Yup, just like you, foxy," Anoel hopped up onto Kitsuki's bed to lightly tap her on the nose, then sat on her heels and glanced toward Arex's sleeping form, "The heat makes people feel more at ease. It's not the uncomfortable kind, but it's the kind that warms you not only on the inside but on the outside too."

She was skirting around the explanations here and holding back on the details. It was annoyingly non-descriptive and vague… but I got the feeling that was on purpose.

"She's a walking heater," I supplied, stealing an amused smile out of Anoel and rousing a tiny, silent giggle out of Kitsuki. It was… odd, to see it and not hear it.

That wasn't even supposed to be funny… in the slightest with any regard even remotely relatable to the connotation at hand.

"Just wait until winter, you'll see," I continued, closing my scroll now that I was done with it. It wasn't giving me anything to do. The job list I was looking into was updated live, so I knew jobs would eventually show up.

I just had myself on the notify list for any jobs that arose that pertained to hunts. They were often always the most dangerous, which was why few accepted them.

Which meant the pay was tremendous…

Easy lien for an easy job.

" _Is this the Arex you mentioned before?"_ Kitsuki asked, turning her gaze back to my partner as she flicked one of her ears unintentionally.

"The very same," Anoel replied with a smile.

No shit, Sherlock. How many people do you think exist in the world with that name? It's not even-

"She taught Niro how to cook and bake. Skills he actually asked for," Anoel continued, sending me that cheeky smile again.

Stop that.

"I was bored, I had nothing better to do," I responded lowly, slipping off my bed and standing. It was getting loud in here and the occupying members of my team were particularly attuned to speaking about me right now.

It was best I leave them alone to do that.

I turned to leave but caught a small chasing pulse rushing through the carpet of the floor. I traced it to its source, leading my senses to pick up an accelerating heart rate.

Arex was waking up.

What the hell did she do to her anyway? Arex is known to have a ridiculous amount of energy to go about her work, day in and night out. She doesn't sleep often, and when she does it was only for the purpose of changing the date of her mental calendar.

How the hell did Anoel put her to sleep like that? She's completely exhausted…

Anoel's eyes turned to see where mine were staring, and her currently golden irises pickup up on a tiny shift in Arex's position on the bed beside them.

"Oh, looks like someone's finally coming to," Anoel spoke quietly, notifying our silent teammate of the obvious, all of us watching as Arex slowly rolled over.

This was going to either be entertaining… or the opposite.

Either way, the newly born nevermore outside deserved to die… and it did, disintegrating mid-flight several hundred feet in the air as I flexed my gloved hand. Ahrulian didn't even spark with aura… it was that easy.

Very rarely does anything ever get through my barrier of wires. It was my field of aura strands, programmed to destroy anything I didn't allow entry… anything at all.

Kitsuki's tails soon came to a quiet standstill, something akin to a fox's growing anticipation as her ears twitched atop her head. Her golden-orange eyes were eagerly watching whatever this girl's next move would be…

Something told me they'd get along just fine, if she looked at her like that.

Arex's legs loosely curled up as she rolled onto her side, facing us. After a few moments, her lax fingers lightly closed in on themselves as she started to find her way back to the world of the conscious.

White irises were the first ones I saw, before they quickly switched to orange as her eyes connected with three different sets staring her way. She looked embarrassed, evident by her legs curling up further.

Kitsuki gave the girl a small wave, an action that only brought confusion to Arex's eyes.

The girl in the green light sweater slowly pushed herself into a sitting position, quickly noticing the lack of edge to her bed. Cautiously, she rubbed whatever sleepiness left out of her eyes as she gazed back at the girls in front of her… flicking her gaze to me for merely a moment before returning to them.

"Well, aren't you going to say something?" Anoel asked, having her childish fun as she laughed lightly, "This is Kitsuki Aeolus. You two are going to be partners."

" _Hi,"_ the kitsune in question signed out, something that caught Arex's eye immediately.

The forger before us stared at Kitsuki's hands for a few moments, transitioning her gaze down to her bed as she slowly took a breath, "Hi."

Her voice was as soft-spoken and reserved as I remembered it being.

" _Can you… read this?"_ Kitsuki slowly signed out, catching Arex's eye again.

I felt Kitsuki spare a tiny smile when Arex nodded her head.

I also felt the wind her tails began to whip around as they slid in a triple crossing pattern atop her sheets.

Don't get so excited, fox.

This wasn't worth my attention anymore, so I made my way to the door and opened it. I made it one step out before I had to force myself to stop, turning back for a moment, "I'll leave you three to get acquainted. You all know me anyway."

They should by now.

I closed and locked the door behind me, pocketing my scroll a moment later before I turned to leave. Of course, my luck seemed to have been taking an off-day… it would seem…

A very annoying fact that keeps coming up.

Considering _he_ was here… him, of all people. I was trying to erase his presence from my mind… but I guess it's a more permanent blight than I previously thought.

He was closing his own door, swiped his own scroll… and for some reason, it all felt too clean, too easy. It was all superficial, which only built onto the twisted concept of his being. His darkness ran deep, something that couldn't be ignored… and contradicted every image he strived to put forward.

He was our neighbor…

I wondered if there were rules against killing one's neighbor.

As if only now he realized I was there, he lifted his head to greet me. Another annoyance, considering he knew I was here far longer than that excuse of a show of innocence.

"Oh, hey there. You're that guy from Miss Caza's class. Niro… right?"

Ahrulian's fabric pulled taught as I clenched my fingers into its palm, tightening them further as I kept any urges from going awry, "I could say the same to you, but it's best not to bother."

My jaw tightened, not wanting to even attempt to recall his name. Unfortunately, it was already engraved in my head.

Dante.

"Wow… um… you seem a bit agitated. Something happen earlier?"

"Just enough to ruin my day," enough to make me want to shatter something's skull. I guess I didn't blow off as much steam as I thought I did… when I ripped up the Emerald Forest earlier.

"That bad huh…? I gotta say, that was some really impressive work in the Emerald Forest earlier with how you fixed the place after… well… annihilating it really. How'd you manage that by the way?"

"Things are easier to put back together when they remember the state they were in before they break," I replied, keeping my voice low and even. I didn't need this guy prying into my capabilities.

"True enough," he replied, "but that still doesn't answer the question. Did you do it using those threads of yours? Or was it an ability of your Semblance?"

I wonder how far he'd go down the hallway… if I punched him. Actually, I know how far he'd go. The question is… how fast can I accelerate him from zero to Mach 3 in a single hit?

"Neither," semblances don't have abilities, they have aspects and properties that build into a complicated design that can change and evolve itself as the soul develops. Nothing about them is simplified enough to call any one trait an ability.

Not to mention, my threads aren't even a direct result of my semblance. They're derived from my weapon, which solidifies aura into the physical form. I just choose to make strands because they're versatile…

There was no other reason.

"Darn… Was sure I had it… Guess I have to take a better look next time. If there is one that is," he let his words trail off, but I had a feeling he knew there'd be a next time.

Especially if I'd be forced to be in the same class as this guy for an entire year.

I was seriously tempted to test my theory… maybe I can get him to accelerate in approximately 0.37 seconds, given his apparent weight and mass distribution.

Just give me a reason, Dante… just one…

"We're in the same class, but don't count on being able to figure anything out," I began to move forward, he was in the direction I needed to go.

I was tempted to go the other way just to get him out of my sight and presence.

"People have tried in the past," I continued, "they've all ended up dead by the advances of grimm, or by their own hand," People who try to figure me out, who try to decode me or unravel my secrets, anyone who ever gets involved with me, they always regret ever trying.

"Well… guess I can take my sweet time since I don't have to worry about getting killed, grimm or otherwise."

Unkillable… he says…

"Don't claim yourself to be unkillable, you're not immortal. No one truly is." he was testing my nerves now, grating at them as I clenched my fist a little harder.

"W-Well… I never said I wasn't unkillable…"

He almost let something slip.

"Just saying I'm not exactly the easiest person to kill is all. I have a feeling the same could be said of you."

I grit my teeth. Was that a challenge?

"You have a preconceived idea that you're durable, but you've never met _me_ before," I almost growled, knuckles paling beneath my fingerless glove as I hardened my gaze and stalled, "You wouldn't be able to get back up after something I'm capable of."

"Wow… You definitely must be strong if you're able to say that all scary-like. Which makes me even more curious…"

Correction, make that 0.27 seconds.

"Save the wit for something that matters, and leave your curiosity on the back burner. This isn't something you should get involved with." I began moving again, nearing the moment I'd be within passing proximity.

"For my own good? Or because you have more to hide than what the rest of us see?"

"I couldn't care less about your well-being, but this isn't something to delve into… not when you have any life you wish to keep," he was too stubborn to let this go.

"My life isn't as much of a concern of mine for… specific reasons. If I didn't know better… it feels as though you have a theory you've been cooking up…"

"I do, and I'm about to test it."

If he didn't voluntarily back off on his own, then this'll give him a reason to do so. If he survives this, that is.

I was just about to pass him now, but the tension in my legs wasn't reserved for the purpose of walking. No, they were tensed for something else. I didn't flood any limbs with aura, it would've been unnecessary, this alone was a test high enough to see if he'd even remotely pass it.

I left no window for reaction, none at all. And with that decision, I made one final calculation, one last estimate…

0.07 seconds.

My fist moved and my body repositioned in an instant, removing myself from whatever walking position I had assumed and let the air collapse in on itself behind me in my wake. The swing of my arm wasn't even exaggerated… it was swift, precise, and brutal.

And it cleared the distance fast enough to rip through the veil of air in front of it and _break the sound barrier_. The air-conditioned space around us stilled… before _rupturing_ , shattering from an ear-piercing concussive blast as a result of an object moving from one position to another at a speed that surpassed sound.

It was akin to the burst of an anti-materiel rifle in sound but its force was several times more lethal… if there's any truth to his words, he'd survive this.

"Whew… That tingled a bit…"

The passing shockwave settled as I saw him _still_ standing in front of me, only just a few feet away now as he shook his heavily bruised right hand, palm in even worse condition. Part of the right sleeve of his long-sleeved black shirt had been torn a little.

But otherwise… he just blocked my attack using his bare hands…

"That really would have hurt… Looks like I was right. You getting a bit antsy meant you were definitely thinking of doing something to me. That, though? Not expected on my part."

Several doors quickly opened in the hallway around us, including my own. I flexed my fingers for a few moments despite them, looking over my glove, before letting my hand fall slowly to my side.

"You weren't lying," I said, letting the situation unfold however way it decided to. Everyone just heard what sounded like a gunshot, after all, "You're durable, but not unkillable."

It only makes me want to try harder.

"You can try again if you'd like… How far you'll actually get, though… well… I'm curious myself to see how far you'd get…" he said with a smile.

For a brief moment, I saw his eyes completely change color. It wasn't just the iris… it was all of it. He wasn't what I thought he was, nobody seems to be these days.

With whatever luck I had still clung to my coat for the day, I walked past him and slipped my hands into my coat's pockets, lowering my gaze slightly as I left him behind, "You can count on it."

My calculations were wrong.

* * *

 **My original plan was for Arex to be a lot more reluctant than she was in this chapter, but I felt that I'd probably stall it out a little too much and not actually get to where I want to be anytime soon.**

 **So, to adjust for that, the pace of this story will be… different than my usual. It's just something I'll have to get used to as it goes on.**

 **More character developments and stuff, hope you enjoyed it.**

 **I do have to wonder how Anoel was able to knock Arex out, though… Curious, isn't it.**

 **Now, I wonder what to do for my team name. I liked the name ELA.**

 **For now,** _ **Favorite**_ **and** _ **Follow**_ **.**

 **I look forward to seeing** _ **REVIEWS**_ **for this. You'll be introduced to a LOT of concepts of mine. Feel free to give me your thoughts.**

 **Cya XP**


	12. Pajamas

Rogue Huntsman

Pajamas

«»

Blood was spilled this night. Unfortunately, it wasn't Dante's.

My coat was drenched, bleeding itself dry in a river of black grimm essence. Its tails streaked with the plaguing mist, pouring into the dirt and the roots as I made my way through the Emerald Forest.

Slowly, the blood bathing my clothes began to flake away, smoldering beneath my aura as I made my rounds.

I wasn't going easy on them… even if my easiest was more than enough to wipe a squadron of Dremoha class grimm.

No… they didn't deserve any of this. They may kill and devour Remnant's races. They may rip into civilization like the Black Death and sweep through villages, wiping entire populations in a single night. They may inflict fear across the continents and tear the limbs off small children that wander into the woods…

But this… even this… no one deserves.

I reached out with a flurry of green threads, swarming them out in a _maelstrom_ of lime green tethers before wrapping them around a beowolf Major and _tearing them through its body_.

If only they showed fear, instead they showed instinct. They were on the run for the betterment of their pack… unfortunately, my walking pace was faster than their quickest prowl.

I followed.

This world isn't a pretty place. It's never been one of luxuries or pleasantries. It's been one of war and conflict, struggles between races and cultures, all under the siege of an unknown enemy of vast and impossible masses.

This is a world of bloodshed, and I intended to shed as much blood as I could tonight.

Three beowolves had the nerve to turn on me, but they no longer had the limbs to do anything more than that. I let their armless half-bodies drop to the ground in six unceremonious thuds, spilling black mist and blood into the roots before I crushed the arms I was holding into fur-ridden dust.

My eyes scanned my surroundings again, counting the fleeing wolves into the twenties… then the thirties. I corralled four different packs into this area of the forest, pushing them to the base of a cliff to trap them.

This is my territory, my school… and _my_ forest.

They have no right to wander in here after I cleared it out just the other day.

I stepped forward, brushing my fingers across the long trunk of a tree as I went. From it sprouted and surged countless threads of my lime green aura, dashing out and spanning to encompass the tree line in its entirety.

My boots, still dripping with blood, pressed down into the scraped, upturned grass as I secured the area in a tight-knit web of strands. 49 beowolves culminated at the rocky outcrop before me, all of them pushed back against the stone face… some even trying to claw through it.

"Fight or die," I growled, silencing them.

It was a command, a request, and insurance of death and bloodshed. These were the lesser-most creatures of grimm, the lowest species of the entire chain. They were the easiest to slay and the easiest to find in packs.

They fought together as much as they died together on instinct and bloodlust alone.

But when they last for longer than they should… they begin to learn, to adapt.

That's what I was counting on.

From the back of the pack emerged a beowolf, bone armor a pale blur in the light of the shattered moon. Its smoldering eyes burned yellow and red, seeking my dark silhouette out of the trees and honing in on my bloodied scent.

The scent of its allies.

It was significantly larger than the rest, easily doubling the size of the largest wolf in the pack. Its maw had the sharpest and longest fangs, all biting into its own fleshy gums as it snarled and growled, prowling low to the ground in a cautious approach.

Its claws were sharper than steel, or so it would like to believe. Its armor ran deep as much as it spread wide, covering its entire back, limbs, and head fully in a suit of bone plating, leaving only the joints exposed.

Spikes ran down its jagged, exterior spine, razor sharp in appearance and shining in the splitting air of the cool night breeze.

The rest of its companions began to follow… if only all of them did.

Four… now five… bolted for the trees.

They shredded themselves on my wires, falling in chunks to the grassy forest floor as the rest turned to me, including the leader.

"Allow me to make a point," I spoke lowly, reviving my approach. My first step caused the leader to tense its legs, my second caused it to growl.

I ignored it.

"You believe yourselves worthy of admittance into my forest," I continued, pulling up my gloved right hand and flexing my fingers, letting green lights dance around them, "You ransack, you pillage… you ravage. You thoughtlessly provoke while you greedily devour. You needlessly hunt for the sake of blood, not sustenance."

I was nearly twenty feet away from the leader when it began to back away, pulling back into a collapsing sea of fur as the rest of the 43 beowolves stood defensively before it.

"You have no other purpose in this world but to kill, to push humanity back as far as you can, then collapse on them as soon as they show the tiniest hint of fear and uncertainty," my voice was resonating off the cliff face behind them, slipping into the trees and vanishing in a quiet murmur, "You call this a lifestyle, a mission you were assigned at birth."

A fleeting glimpse of green light split away from the glow culminating around my hand… decapitating a lesser beowolf in front of me.

Its body didn't hit the floor… it just stood there, stiff… before I called on the aura I forced into its body and ruptured it, drenching its companions in a burst of black mist with an expanding flurry of strings.

"What would you do," I paused, allowing chunks to fall from the sky as I lowered my hand, the glow in my hand intensifying, "if someone _returned the favor_?" I finished in a growl, lowering my head to hide my shining eyes behind its cascading shadow.

They charged.

Seven beowolves were the first to lunge, nine followed, closely tagged by eleven more while the rest seemed content to begin to circle me. I let them get close… seven sets of claws homing in on my pale flesh on this night of a blackened forest.

 _Slow…_ I watched as the sharp, brittle tip of a claw moved toward my eye. I felt three of the seven place their claws on my legs and back. The last of the seven seemed keen to try to dig into my sides, clawing and biting for my midsection.

I drew my hand up and pulled the claw away from my shadowed eyes, tapping it with a flick of my hand before taking a step forward and pushing my fist through its ribcage… killing it with its own momentum and lack of judgment.

All claws that made to rip into my flesh shattered, breaking against my aura as I turned, watching as three of them snapped their own arms with how much force they put behind their desperate strikes.

They weren't fast enough… not for someone like me.

Not for something like this.

I dragged my fingers through the air, leaving behind five bright streaks of light before I grabbed them with my other hand and pulled them taught. The solidified aura bent to my will, molding into a glass-like longsword I used to swipe through the remaining beowolves of the first initial wave of seven.

The number one thing you should never allow me the advantage of…

Is the use of a bladed weapon.

I moved in like a shadow in the dim sky, dashing silently through the waves of beowolves as I let my glowing blade pass through their flesh and bone. Every wound I made, I intensified with a blast of aura, severing limbs and tendons with ease while shattering bone.

21 down…

With two fingers, I dragged new light down the expanse of my shining blade, pulling its shape along with my passing hand as I extended its reach. Its glow brightened exponentially, bordering on becoming its own star before I drew it back and swept it in a wide arc.

A surge of lime green light in the form of a passing crescent wave emerged from its edge, slicing through the remains of the beowolves around me before it crashed into the stone of the cliff at the far back.

Their leader had the decency to jump its passing wave… marking itself as the lone survivor.

The rest dropped dead and began to fade away.

I let my blade dissipate and vanish as I watched the leader, a moving ghost of white and black, land on its haunches against the cliff's wall before pouncing forward, diving toward me as it drove its claws through the air.

I caught the tip of its dominant claw with my finger and killed its momentum, cracking the ground and blasting its cold surface and the tails of my coat in a sudden burst of speeding wind. All of it surged into the trees as I allowed my opponent to let gravity begin to kick in.

Its claw didn't shatter, it was too strong for that, but it did pull back as it fell to its hind legs once again.

It still had that look in its eyes… it was a savage, thirsty, bloodlusting glare of defiance, of hunger… of anger.

With every fiber of its being, it wanted nothing more than to tear my throat from my body. It wanted to do whatever it could to survive without admitting defeat, without giving into a superior being. It wanted to fight for every drop of blood I spilled, every ally it lost, every grimm I took.

All in a selfish, vain attempt to kill me… and escape with its life.

It made a bite for my entire head, turning its maw sideways as it lunged…

I reached up and placed my hand on the bottom of its jaw, easing it to the side as its attack missed me entirely. My move forced its teeth to snap closed, muffling a strained and muffled growl of pain as the move nearly snapped its neck.

"Try again," I took my hand from its fur and it backed away, eyes trailing in a darker, colder light as I pushed it closer and closer to its own demise, "Give me a reason to try in return."

Something in the grimm before me began to crackle, snapping its bone armor to life as its eyes suddenly sputtered with golden sparks. Inside its maw broke free thousands of volts of electricity, melting across its fur in shattered webs as it dug its claws into the dirt.

Its whole body tensed, all of it grinding down as it stretched and pushed itself back, unleashing a howling wail into the night air as lightning cracked the ground beneath it.

It didn't wait. I watched it dash to the side with an enhanced speed that rivaled the fastest flying nevermore. It grazed the ground in light, scraping lunges, surging across the forest floor at what would've been a speed no untrained eye could follow.

I watched it make its rounds, remaining in place as I let it disappear from view. I didn't need to see its raw image to know where it was… its presence was enough of a disruption as it is.

It made a lunge for my exposed back… I let it.

I cut off my aura, blocked it from shielding me in any way… and took the hit. Its claws dug into my back from a sweeping right plunge, stopping at my bones as it shot enough electricity into me that could've killed any human in an instant.

The currents of lightning got stronger, intensifying tenfold when it sunk its maw into my left shoulder from behind, spitting thousands of extra volts into my nervous system as the forest around us illuminated in a burning, golden glow.

Dirt, grass, stone, roots… it all began to erode away as the lightning surged through my body, rushing into the ground and _breaking it apart_. A crater quickly sunk into the surface of the remnant beneath us as I endured it all.

Within the next few seconds, I felt its lightning begin to lessen and its energy begin to die. It pushed itself off of me, throwing itself onto its back as it scraped and pressed its claws into the ground, shaking its fur and head as it eyed me closely.

I kept my aura from reactivating.

Blood, my blood, spilled into the dirt as I turned around, eyeing my prey with a calm gaze.

A gaze that petrified it.

Smoke spilled off my skin, collecting beneath the rim of my hat as I stepped toward the Alpha before me… the Alpha bred with Dust from Remnant's deepest secrets. It was an elemental based grimm…

Or, so it once was.

"I was wrong," I spoke, inciting the tiniest whimper from the exhausted creature before me as I approached, then crouched before its grounded, defenseless form, "You weren't worth my time after all."

I reached forward and touched its fur… unleashing every voltage of energy I collected and amplifying it twentyfold…

Whatever remained of the ground beneath us melted away, a new golden light surging into the atmosphere above as the trees around me blazed with fire. The cliff face behind us cracked and shattered… before disappearing entirely.

The cliff side caved in on itself, melting away and evaporating into the air as if it were nothing more than wisps of gray water. Three trees back, across the tree line that once surrounded us, burst into splinters and flames, vanishing as well.

The creature beneath my touch could only take so much… before it eroded away, dispersing in a fraction of a second from its own power.

Then I stopped… and allowed everything to rebuild itself after reactivating my aura.

Only blood remained, but even that began to evaporate into fading black mist.

No more grimm existed in any proximity to the school once again, so I headed to my dorm.

There wasn't anything left for me to kill.

* * *

Arex had just set up her bed, switching default sheets out for the ones Anoel brought with them. She rested her black pillow into place before padding over in her ankle socks, making her way to her dresser where her duffle bag rested.

"You said you brought everything you could find?" she asked, dropping softly to her knees as she unzipped its largest compartment.

"Yup, everything you had in your drawers and closet. Amazing how it could all fit in that duffle bag, but, I did have to leave one or two things behind," Anoel replied, bobbing her foot up and down with one leg crossed over the other.

She was in her pajamas, wearing black short-shorts and a white, short-sleeved shirt to top it off. Her hat, as it would seem to be the case all the time, still remained on her head, completing her usual ensemble.

"I hope nothing important got left behind," Anoel tipped her black cowboy hat in Arex's direction, the girl's silver, humorous eyes peering over the edge of her scroll toward her sister.

"Anoel, what did you leave behind?" Arex asked, voice turning uncertain as she began to unpack neatly folded clothes from her duffle bag. Slowly, she began storing them inside the dresser in front of her.

"Oh, just the things you didn't need," Anoel waved, only working to put Arex's nerves on the fritz.

" _Do you tease her like this often?"_ Kitsuki signed to Anoel, sitting against the pillow of her own bed with her lithe legs slipped beneath her covers.

"Oh, you have no idea," Anoel replied with a smile, catching a momentary but silent sigh from Arex.

" _Doesn't it put a strain on your relationship at all? As sisters?"_ Kitsuki asked, pulling her large white fox tail from behind her and wrapping it around, letting her three tails hold together and rest on her lap.

The kitsune's version of pajamas was, well, the only thing she could think of to allow her tails their freedom of movement in bed. She wore a large white light sweater, falling softly over her form and dangling just low enough to cover her waist and most of her hips, which sported nothing but a pair of white panties.

"Not at all," Anoel responded, letting her scroll rest on her bed for the time being as she regarded Kitsuki across the room, "It actually keeps us close."

"That's one way of putting it," Arex commented, trying to hold her nerves in as she got through the rest of her bag, taking inventory as she went.

She had her clothes, socks, underwear, bathroom necessities, scroll charger, her toolkit, several of her electronic accessories, everything seemed to be accounted for. Anoel even grabbed all her extra light sweaters.

Wait…

Arex quickly scanned her drawers, pulling one out… pushing it closed then checking the next one down…

W-wait…

"Anoel, where are my PJs?" Arex asked, sliding her final drawer closed and placing her hands on the dresser's top.

"You mean your usual sleepwear of shorts and a sweater?" Anoel asked, getting a hesitant nod in return, "Oh, I guess I forgot the shorts. It's getting cold, so I guess it just slipped my mind."

"Y-you remembered everything else!" Arex rested her head on her hands, closing her eyes as she bit her lip, "I don't even get cold anyway…"

"Ah, right, we don't do we…?" Anoel realized, letting her foot bob up and down once more as she flashed a wink to Kitsuki.

Something that confused the kitsune greatly.

" _Why would you not bring her shorts? They wouldn't have taken up that much space,"_ Kitsuki wondered, getting a shrug out of the info broker on her bed.

Anoel then did something the kitsune wasn't expecting, signing something back in return, _"It limits her options of sleepwear. Trust me, it'll be a cute sight."_

Kitsuki's right fox ear twitched for a moment as she fixed Anoel with a tilted, curious, but still slightly confused look, _"This was just to see something cute?"_

Anoel nodded her head as she responded, _"She's one of those people that look adorable when she sleeps, so I'm only making that image all the better. You're the one sleeping with her, though. So you get to take as much of it in as you want."_

"K-kitsuki, do you have anything I can borrow?" Arex asked, pushing herself up from the dresser's edge and turning to glance over her shoulder, "Anything at all?"

Kitsuki's golden-orange eyes glanced to Anoel for a few seconds, before with one final twitch of the ear, she turned them back to Arex and shook her head no, _"I'm sorry, I don't have anything you'd be comfortable wearing."_

"Really?" Arex asked with a sigh, getting an affirmative nod from the kitsune, "A-anoel, what about-"

"Why don't you just do what Kitsuki's doing?" Anoel asked, interrupting Arex's possible inquiry, "Just throw on a clean sweater and drop the pants. It's not that hard."

Arex's face dipped into a reddening blush, "I-I think I'll just sleep with a pair of sweatpants on for tonight. I can pick up the rest of my things tomor-"

Anoel disappeared from her bed in an orange blur, appearing at Arex's side in half a second and eliciting a stifled eep from the girl. The elder sister locked her arms around Arex's waist and placed her chin on the girl's shoulder, pushing her frame into that of the forger's.

"Come on Arex, this is the first step to becoming more open with people you know," Anoel chastised, brushing her cheek across Arex's blushing face, "Just for tonight, why don't you try sleeping like that? You might be surprised how comfortable it is… and it cuts back on laundry too."

Anoel ran the calculations before even packing Arex's bag at her place. She made sure to only pack enough to be worn on a daily basis, leaving everything else just to be sure Arex couldn't set aside anything extra for pajamas.

She needed to break Arex out of her shell, that's always been a goal of hers. But she wasn't lying earlier. Arex really was one of those girls that slept adorably.

"Now come on, drop the pants or I'll do it for you," Anoel began to slowly slide her hands down to find the waistband of Arex's pants, catching the band of the girl's panties beneath in the process just before Arex reached down in a quick urgency, snagging Anoel's hands.

"F-fine, I'll give it a try, just," Arex bit her lip, keeping a tight hold of Anoel's hands before slowly easing her prying fingers away, "Just go back to your bed."

"Promise you'll give it a try?" Anoel asked, just to make sure.

Arex hesitated for a moment, but she gave Anoel a meek nod in return, satisfying the other sister for now. Anoel relinquished her hold on Arex and returned to her bed, an extra spring in her step before plopping herself back onto her mattress.

Arex still stood in place, staring down at the floor with her arms hanging quietly at her sides.

It was just for one night.

The forger glanced up, bright orange eyes noticing Kitsuki hiding behind her tail. The kitsune had brought up the fluffy expanse of her white fur, pulling it in and holding it against her chest as she peered over its softly curled tip.

Two white fox ears and a set of shining eyes were all Arex saw appearing over the end of the girl's tail. She couldn't see the rest of her face.

She wanted to at least see what kind of reaction she got… after that stunt Anoel pulled.

It wasn't going to be the last, she knew that much.

With a soft, resigned sigh, Arex turned around and pulled out a clean sweater. Its material was light, thin, like all the rest of her light sweaters. It was a lighter green than her usual dark colors.

Keeping the article in hand and pulling out a clean pair of panties, Arex disappeared into the bathroom for a few moments. She switched her current sweater for the one in her hand and did the same below, keeping quiet as she changed. With the first part of this catastrophe over with, she threw her pants back on and made her way back to her dresser.

A passing glance showed Anoel to be doing something on her scroll, responding to a message of sorts.

At least she wasn't watching…

Arex then glanced to Kitsuki one more time, noticing her curious eyes still peering over the expanse of her tail. Her hands then signed something out.

" _Are you really going through with this?"_ she asked.

Arex could only give a meek smile and slowly nodded her head, signing back, _"I don't have any spare clothes. I kind of have to for now. Is it… as comfortable as Anoel says it is?"_

" _More than she could ever explain,"_ Kitsuki responded immediately, giving her tail a mild flick as she slid her legs around slightly beneath the covers, _"You'll never go back."_

 _That comfortable…_ Arex bit her lip, then gestured for Kitsuki to cover her eyes or look away. The kitsune did as requested, stuffing her face into her tails as Arex stared down at her sweatpants for another few moments.

She hated falling into these traps… but, believe it or not, Anoel had yet to lead her astray… so far. With everything she's ever done to Arex, never once was it to hurt her or had it result in that way in any case.

It… somehow always ended up working out.

She had that effect on people, that positive influence, even with what she does for a living and an occupation. It was strange, but… Arex trusted Anoel with her life.

Trying not to think about it, Arex softly pulled at the waistband of her pants and silently pushed them down, dropping them over her lithe, slender legs before stepping out of them. She quickly put any worn clothes into her hamper, then padded her way to her bed.

She didn't hesitate to get under the covers.

" _How's it feel?"_ Kitsuki asked, peeking out from behind her tail as Arex adjusted herself beneath her blanket.

"Different…" the girl muttered, finding nothing else to explain it currently. Pleasant, would be a term she'd use, but also vulnerable and open. Those factors played a part in the comfort, though, which just added another layer to the ensemble of ways to describe the freedom of her new pajama set.

" _Try it for a little while, you might like it,"_ Kitsuki offered, giving Arex a comforting nod and a small smile.

Arex took that more into account than what her sister said.

"Girls, just as a heads up," Anoel held up her scroll, getting the attention of the other two as she gave it a few small taps, "Niro won't be back for another few hours, so we don't have to wait up for him."

"I don't think he'd want us to anyway," Arex replied, opening her own scroll and glancing at her notifications.

"Unlikely, but just know he'll be coming back into the dorm pretty late. He's pretty good at being silent, though, so no worries about waking up when he does," Anoel finished, giving her scroll a quick toss before catching it.

" _If you don't mind me asking, what does Niro wear to bed?"_ Kitsuki asked, continuing the topic at hand that seemed to be a reoccurring conversation starter.

"Niro?" Anoel responded, letting her scroll slide closed as she glanced toward the bed placed against her own, "He just takes off his coat, really. That's about it."

" _He doesn't change at all?"_ Kitsuki asked.

"He doesn't need to," Arex chipped in, flicking through her scroll as she listened, "He only has those clothes and nothing else anyway."

" _Wait, really? How-"_

"Don't ask," Anoel stopped Kitsuki mid-sign, giving her a dismissive wave of the hand, "We'll eventually explain it to you, but it's better that you don't know for now. It's too much for one night anyway. Everything about Niro usually is."

Kitsuki slowly nodded her head, understanding the response only slightly but didn't want to push it further, _"I guess that made moving in rather easy."_

"He basically just has to walk into a building and he's already moved in," Arex commented.

"All he needs is a toothbrush," Anoel finished, taking a momentary glance to the bathroom to jog a few thoughts, "And some shower accessories, I guess."

Kitsuki brought in her knees as she thought about it, _"That sounds… nice, and easy too."_

Anoel gave the kitsune a sympathetic smile, "It does."

Kitsuki didn't realize how many hardships that lifestyle also brought with it. All the difficulties, the pain, everything seemed to cling to it like a curse with no signs of a cure.

It wasn't a life anyone could live… but it was the only life Niro ever knew.

Ever since he was born.

* * *

 **Early update for this week considering I have a feeling I'm going to want Friday off. I have finals all week since I'm taking 7 of them this semester. So, that's something to look forward to... but, not really. It's a lot to do.**

 **I gave you a little taste of Niro's power at the start of this chapter, then eased it all down into some nice interactions between the rest of his team back at the dorm room.**

 **Anyone have a solid guess on Niro's semblance yet? Or, still trying to figure that one out?**

 **Either way, the next chapter starts a new day. And trust me, a new day will start something interesting alright, something big. The forests might not stay empty for long.**

 **Here's a hint for the time being. I brought up the concept of Dremoha class grimm. I created a scale that ranked grimm based on power, aptitude, and lifetime. The longer a grimm survives for, the smarter and more powerful they get. So, I took that heavily into account. What's coming will be a higher tier than an Alpha.**

 **Might be Dremoha, it might not. We'll see.**

 **By the way, Niro only went on that clearing run because he was annoyed. He wasn't actually doing it for the betterment of the school or its students, he was just fed up with his day.**

 **So, yeah, no update Friday. Give me your thoughts on the fighting style. I'm interested to see how it got across to all of you.**

 **For now,** _ **Favorite**_ **and** _ **Follow**_ **.**

 **I look forward to seeing** _ **REVIEWS**_ **for this. You'll be introduced to a LOT of concepts of mine. Feel free to give me your thoughts.**

 **Cya XP**


	13. Aura-Forged

Rogue Huntsman

Aura-Forged

«»

An orb of fire condensed into a cluster of smoldering, manifesting white heat, molding itself into a long blinding streak of light the length of a sword.

The fire then collapsed around black steel, carefully heating it momentarily before the one holding the blade slipped the weapon back out of the make-shift furnace.

Arex wanted to redesign her main weapon, something she's been reluctant to really work on ever since its initial creation. It wasn't a factor of effort or time, it was far more elusive than that… since she had yet to perfect the technique she was currently using.

As the metal in her blade continued to shine, she poured her aura into the hot molecules of its steel and worked to disperse it evenly within its structural matter.

Hot Aura Fusion.

The alloy Arex forged back at her furnace at home was constructed of metal she's been repeatedly pouring her aura into since their initial firing. Each time, the material retained more and more aura as she dispersed each pulse into the structure of the object's components.

It was quickly reaching the point where no more aura could be contained inside the shell of the blade… due to the aura physically _merging_ with the atoms making up the weapon.

That only meant she was nearing completion.

Smoke and steam suddenly plumed from Arex's forging station as she dipped her hot blade into an aura bath, finishing her special heat treatment of her weapon with a final seal to lock everything together.

The heat smothering the core of the metal in her grasp deteriorated, quickly fading away as she siphoned it into the open air around her. Before long, Arex removed her sword from the glowing pool of shimmering orange light.

She spent the next hour and a half polishing the blade with different grits of a grinder, shaping and sharpening it into a single-edged longsword. She incorporated a fuller into her design, which was a beveled groove or slot that ran down the flat sides of her blade.

Lastly, she carefully carved out a long, shallow cut inside the back edge of her blade and down its entire length, creating a slit-like line going from hilt to tip.

That was her conduit, which was carefully measured for its function to be effective.

She had already spent five to six hours engraving an intaglio of branching flames across both sides of her blade's surface. And with careful regard to those engravings, she was able to keep them clean and visible throughout the final processes of her weapon's re-creation.

Now, all that was left was to integrate the hilt and the pommel. The design of the base of her blade was unique where it met her handle, where the hilt would slide into place.

Instead of the hilt getting inserted flatly against the blade itself, she designed the blade's base in such a way to carve out a back segment of the blade. The cut followed a straight, shallowly curved line up the center of the blade before arcing outward after several inches. The removed segment allowed its front edge to connect directly with her hilt while allowing an extension of her handle to fill the groove she cut out.

It was a single-edged blade, so the design would allow for more leverage in each swing. However, she was also doing this to build a catalyst that would feed ammunition into the conduit running down the blade's spine.

The extension of the weapon's handle was sleek, only slightly thicker than the blade it connected to. Its shape mirrored the curved groove, only its back edge had a pointed slope elegantly tapering out near its base, close to the hilt. The tip of it merely connected with the spine of the sword at the end of the missing segment, sealing the extension seamlessly to the blade.

Beneath the extension and the expanse of her blade lay the hilt, taking the shape of two, short prongs. The back prong reached out about an inch, taking a rectangular, nearly rhombus shape, given its slightly narrowing edges.

The front prong reached out slightly passed the blade's edge, going an extra inch and a half as it narrowed and dipped downward, sharpening into a point. Its only purpose was to glance deflected strikes away from her hand.

With another hour to color and polish the components, Arex finished with wrapping her weapon's handle in a custom black cloth grip. Her pommel was weighted specifically to keep the balancing point of her weapon just above her hilt. Its shape was similar to a triangle, only if its sides were curved inward and its base outward… along with a hollow center, beveled angularly to make its inner corners more apparent.

Arex slowly let a breath out, eyeing the blade lying across the workbench before her. The color scheme she chose was black and green. Or, more specifically, pristine ebony and fluorescent lime green.

The surface of it reflected light beautifully, running a shine down the length of its exterior with fluid ease. Its pommel, hilt, and handle extension were carefully trimmed with the brighter accenting color, while the rest kept its dark base setting.

The intaglio wasn't colored. If you weren't looking carefully at the blade, the intaglio she engraved was nearly invisible… that was what she wanted.

Each engraving she made in the blade's flat surfaces, even the fuller itself, was designed to collect and glow with aura as she linked herself to the dormant aura within the weapon. Additionally, that aura can be refilled through use and expended during attacks.

"Did you make this?" someone suddenly asked, and it wasn't until now that Arex caught the glimpse of a red cloak drifting into her peripherals.

Arex gave the new arrival a startled glance, catching silver eyes with slightly shocked yellow irises.

"H-huh?"

"This," the girl before her stared down at the weapon on the station, eyes glistening with an intrigued curiosity no other could feasibly reach, "you made this, didn't you…?"

The girl's voice was sweet, young… innocent. It simmered with excitement and sympathy, rendering itself in a silken tone that could only suggest the purest of intents.

She looked two years too young to be here.

"U-um, would you mind me asking who you are?" Arex rebounded from the sudden appearance of a young observer, finding it in herself to return something more than confusion.

"Oh! Sorry about that, I'm pretty bad with introductions," the girl replied, brushing a quick hand through her hair to adjust her asymmetrical bangs, "My name's Ruby. I haven't seen too many people in here lately, so when I saw _you_ in here I got a little curious."

 _A little?_ Arex quietly stared at the girl, watching as she fidgeted beneath her gaze, "It's alright, I guess I should've been more aware. I get a little lost in the work I do."

"We all do sometimes," Ruby offered meekly.

"It just means what you're doing means something," Arex returned, gently resting her arms on the workstation in front of her as she loosely crossed them, "Do you make your own weapons too?"

Ruby gave a quick, curt nod, "Everyone at Signal has to. I just happen to do it a lot more than most of the other students. It's… kind of a fascination, but more of a passion, on my part. I'm kind of a weapons nut."

Arex calmly hummed, "I'm the same."

"Really?!" Ruby suddenly went wide-eyed with excitement, causing Arex to recoil slightly.

"Y-yeah."

Ruby squealed, pale cheeks slightly reddening as she embarrassed herself in front of a stranger, but she didn't care about that right now, "Have you named it yet?"

Arex glanced down to the blade in front of her and faltered slightly in her countenance, gaze softening.

Ruby wasn't oblivious enough to miss that, "B-but if you don't want to tell me, that's perfectly fine. I mean, my weapon's name is pretty personal too. It was pretty rude to intrude like that."

Arex found herself looking away, glancing toward the workshop tools to take a moment. It was just to distract herself, nothing more, "Leone."

Ruby's eyes quickly found their way back to the girl in front of her, silencing her mental rants as she heard the other forger's soft reply, "That's a beautiful name…"

Arex dipped her head in a tiny nod, "It is."

The two stood there in a few moments of silence, the only sound conveyed into the room was the noise of the forge beside them. The rest of Beacon's forge room was empty, the only station in use being the one the two girls were stationed at.

It was awkward for the both of them… Ruby couldn't stop herself from idly shifting her weight on the balls of her feet.

"Can I know your name?" the reaper asked, making the first attempt to break the settling tension.

Ruby smiled sweetly, noticing the girl's eyes change a few times before eventually turning back to meet her own.

It was… strange. Ruby found the girl to, well, actually be approachable. Everyone else felt so distant, so on another level than herself. Ever since the reaper arrived at Beacon, she's felt so out of place.

Why was this so different?

"Arex," the girl in the green sweater replied, showing off a tiny, distracted smile of her own, "It's nice to meet you, Ruby."

"I-it's nice to meet you too," Ruby quietly replied, her nerves acting up… but to a lesser degree than before.

Arex suddenly shifted her weight and pushed away from the workstation, giving her arms a quick stretch as she took in a mild breath, the action revealing a portion of her flat, pale stomach, "Listen, I've sorta been up since one. I think I'm probably just going to go nap to music or something."

Ruby gave the girl a shocked look of her own, "Wait, how much sleep did you actually get last night?"

"An hour or two, I had trouble falling asleep," Arex replied with a soft shrug of her shoulders. She didn't want to get into the part that she had even _more_ trouble _staying_ asleep.

"T-that's not much…" Ruby muttered, the look on her face quickly falling into a sympathetic gaze, "Are you alright?"

The question caught Arex a little off-guard, especially coming from someone she only just met, "For the most part, but you don't have to worry about me. I'm used to it."

 _She's used to it…?_ Ruby nodded, but she didn't exactly know what to think right now. The nod was only a filler to give her time, but that time was cut short as she watched Arex pick up her weapon and shut down her forge.

She was leaving.

"W-wait, don't you have classes later?" Ruby quickly asked, her tone falling into the same tone of her worried thoughts, "You'd be missing them."

Arex stopped for a moment, glancing over her shoulder as her sword's tip dipped slightly toward the floor, "I'm not in the system yet, so I'm not required to attend anything."

Her gaze then turned upward as she sighed, looking into the tall, vast reaches of the room above them and toward the openable panels of the roof.

"I'm sure that'll be fixed soon since I'm already on a team. It's just not official yet."

Ruby didn't know what else to say, watching as Arex waited for another few moments before moving toward the door. The reaper quickly jostled her hair for a moment, trying to find something to at least leave off with, but the girl at the door beat her to it.

"It really was nice meeting you, Ruby," Arex said, glancing to the young reaper out of the corner of her eye, "Maybe I'll see you later, at some point. You'll probably find me in here a lot either way."

She left before Ruby found it within herself to wave goodbye, disappearing from the room as Ruby's pale hand remained in front of her for a few solemn moments.

The warmth was gone. She didn't know why, but the room suddenly felt colder…

"See you around," the reaper murmured, eventually letting her hand return to her side.

It took her another few minutes before she started making her way back to her room. She needed to wake her team…

* * *

Three hours… over three hours of my life have been wasted. And for what? To learn about war between the faunus and the human race and the _shocking_ tiers of Grimm.

That time could've been spent doing other things. I could've run 98 jobs, accumulated 470,000 Lien, decimated 310 grimm of all varieties, and had time to make _tea_ for a party of _seven_. And I'd _still_ have three hours to do other things. You call this a good way to spend my time?

No, this is a good way to burn the authoritative system to the ground in my mind. Nobody needs to know about the past. He says we're destined to repeat it if we don't learn it, which is the best way to color a fit of lies in the current day and age.

Say it confidently and dramatically and _anyone_ will believe you.

Like hell that'd ever work. Oh, and look… it worked… on the entirety of the class save for us and one other dumbass in the crowd.

This school's a joke.

The only acknowledgeable thing, the _only_ thing worthy of even mentioning, was the tiers Grimm can achieve in a long life of ancient cowardice and sophisticated laziness. Yeah, that's right. In Grimm logic, the best way to get powerful is to _do nothing_.

Survive, and you shall obtain power.

They have the easiest system in the world to grow in strength. Us on the other hand, we have to fall to our knees and pitifully beg others to train us. To give us a purpose and a goal to chase, to learn lessons and obtain skills, to do something with our lives because we're too ignorant to figure it out ourselves.

This is why education is the most controversial piece of hypocrisy in history.

The council can _literally_ claim that Dust is edible and should be ingested in regular doses to catalyze the aura genes inside our bodies to accelerate our aura outage by several percentages. And the _world_ would believe it.

At least until civilization starts to suffer the side effects of _eating energy_.

We might as well gouge out our eyes and walk by faith of someone else's will. It's not like we're doing anything different as a race. We're only interested in surviving and thriving under the rule of someone else because only the crazy want to be responsible for _ruling_ such a civilization.

You think a benevolent person seeks power in a world like this? That's a pipe dream dragged along bloodied snow on the tail end of a meat toboggan trailing with entrails. Nobody _nice_ ever obtains a seat of power.

The pre-requisites of obtaining power is selfishness, corruption, and personal gain.

At least Professor Port gave us something to _actually_ learn, if people weren't too busy staring at her legs the whole time. Low and behold, I thought Port would be a boisterous man who'd teach us _valuable_ and _extensive_ lessons about his past through monologued stories of his chivalrous acts and knightly duties.

Oh, no, no that was only the assumption of a mad man. No, _she_ was a busty woman in her early thirties, developed beyond the imaginations of the horniest students of the room and _flaunty_ enough to show off a lot of skin.

She could kill most children in the room at any given time if she chose to do so. Instead, she spit knowledgeable words at us in hopes of two or three syllables being retained over the course of the 90-minute class block.

Unfortunately, those words were only used as filler for the mental fantasies passing through half the class.

No wonder why everyone arrives early to _Grimm Studies_ class.

Nonetheless, the tiers of Grimm were as simple as they got. They started with the lowest of the low, the newborns. These don't even make it onto the tier list to begin with. They're so weak and so plentiful in numbers, they don't even deserve to be mentioned.

The step above them, the _actual_ start to the tiers are the Minor grimm. These have at least some sense to them and have accumulated enough knowledge over time to formulate packs and strategize. These were what you find in the Emerald forest, like that pack of beowolves I slaughtered last night.

The next tier is the Majors. These are usually lightly armored and lead small platoons of Minors, who naturally follow orders from a higher ranking Grimm and tend to eventually escalate to the next level given enough time.

That level was the Alphas. These are heavily armored, often times lethally tactical and strategic, and know how to get lesser grimm to eat out of their claws. They lead the Majors and the Minors, taking the chief of a horde in name and in strength.

They pale in comparison to the next level of the tier list. We discovered pretty quickly that, anything past the Alpha, was still technically an Alpha. It was just more armored, or bigger, or brawnier, or had more teeth, or more spines.

Some Alphas even learned how to merge their black essence with Dust veins within Remnant's caves or exposed rocky outcrops, giving them an elemental prowess.

They're still Alphas.

No, it wasn't until they accumulated enough power to reach an aptitude capable of _leveling a mountain_ that we decided to label the next one up on a separate tier list from the Alphas and the rest. These were the Dremoha class Grimm.

They _all_ have an affinity to an element, sometimes two, and have enough power and strength to wipe armies off the face of the planet. Some grow to rival the size of five Atlesian Airships, others maintain their original size but increase in the potency of their power threshold.

Most hunters could only dream of facing such beasts, if those hunters were delusional enough to confuse a nightmare for a dream. Dremoha were incredibly territorial and don't venture too far out of their marked homes. All Dremoha tended to avoid one another, keeping to their territory and only occasionally invading that of another.

Dremoha were incredibly smart and tended to avoid civilization.

Not like they needed to, anyway.

The final tier, the fifth tier, is another massive power gap between levels. Only… this one is so much larger than the difference between an Alpha and a Dremoha.

The Omegas, meaning the _end_ of everything.

Only _one_ has ever been spotted throughout the entirety of the history of the human race. Only once has an Omega ever been seen…

And that date was wiped from the history books to place a veil of ignorance over civilization. Historians wanted to keep such a creature at a mythological belief rather than a proven fact.

There used to be five Kingdoms.

One for each cardinal direction and one at its center. That's what the world used to look like.

But on one fateful day… the Lost Kingdom of Kerillor was wiped off the face of Remnant. Its entire southern continent was obliterated, its populous decimated, and its name and existence forever written out of common knowledge for the centuries to follow.

All it took was a day… and an entire Kingdom disappeared, landmasses and people in its entirety, gone in the blink of a few hours.

I've always wanted to take one of those things on.

It sounds like fun. Plus, the collateral damage would be substantial. It'd give the world a nice little reality check to rethink their decisions.

"Are you just going to monologue in your head all day?"

Put a sock in it, Anoel, "If I didn't monologue in my head, my observers wouldn't be entertained."

"People are observing your thoughts?" the info-broker asked, tilting her head with an amused smirk beneath her cowboy hat.

"Only the ones stupid enough to look into them," I replied.

The sea of students before us parted like the red sea with every step I took, keeping to a wide area of avoidance as I kept half my gaze hidden behind the front of my black cowboy hat. Good, I was afraid I'd shatter bones if I ever walked into another student.

They got out of the way like they were supposed to.

We made it to the center of Beacon in the next few moments and pressed the call button to the elevator of the Academy's centralized, and tallest, tower.

"Seriously, what are you thinking about?" Anoel prodded, poking my arm with the pad of her index finger, "You wouldn't happen to be thinking about our Grimm Studies teacher, would you? I mean, she _was_ pretty hot… and that's _me_ saying it."

"If you think I find a female carrying a blunderbuss for a weapon elegant and refined, then you'd be wrong. She's eye candy for the class," I let out a stifled breath, grumbling into the exasperated air as we waited for the elevator to descend, "But at least she had something useful to say, unlike our other class."

"With the coffee guy?" she asked, flicking the front rim of her hat up before crossing her arms, "I think his name was Oobleck."

"You _know_ his name was Oobleck," I countered, pushing the retort even more afterward, "You probably know his family history by now alongside what he had for lunch, how much coffee he drinks per minute, and how much lien he makes on average."

Anoel rolled her eyes, "He actually drinks approximately 11 cups worth of coffee every minute. It's highly impressive, if you can stomach it."

"He's more than stomaching it," I growled, emphasized by a ding and the metal doors before us sliding open, "It's more likely his body _requires it_ to survive. It's his elixir for immortality."

"And what's yours?" Anoel asked, stepping inside the elevator and taking the side near the buttons. I took the corner opposite her, "What do you live for?"

That question was as unfair as asking a child what song he wanted for his funeral, "Does anybody have to live for anything in the first place?" I returned, pressing my back into to wall behind me as the doors sealed shut.

"Everybody lives for a reason, Niro. Everyone has a reason for what they do, some just haven't found that reason yet," she replied, eyes and face turning toward me as she leaned against the adjacent wall of the compartment.

It wasn't worth thinking about, "I wasn't given a choice on whether or not I was born alive or dead, or conceived in the first place. The odds were in favor of throwing me into a furnace and seeing how long I'd last. Unfortunately, that furnace only made me stronger. And now, all I can do is wait out the ire of society."

"You're not chasing anything? You don't have anything you can say that you're striving to become?" Anoel asked instead.

"I'm going to avenge my father's murder, anything beyond that doesn't matter right now," I replied, listening to each consecutive, slow ding of the floors passing us by.

"That can't really be it, can it?"

She was really pushing this.

I sensed a sudden gradual pressure on the cables suspending this elevator compartment from plummeting down its shaft, and a moment later, before I happened to give any response of my own, the elevator came to a slow halt on the floor of the library.

We were close to ascending into the tower itself, but of course, something had to have been waiting for the elevator on a floor above us.

The doors slid open and Jaune Arc stepped inside.

"Going down?" he asked.

I grabbed him by the collar and full-armed slung him down the expanse of the library's hallway he came from.

And then the doors closed, and we continued.

"To be honest, I haven't thought that far ahead," I responded to Anoel's question, returning to my corner.

She hummed for a moment, visibly mulling her next words over carefully before she spoke them, "And what about in the long run? Ever think about settling down, maybe even start up a family?"

"You think I want children to put up with what I do on a daily basis?" I asked, turning my hard gaze to her.

"I'm just saying, maybe you want your lineage to be something more than an afterthought. You never know, you might find a little happiness in a family of your own," Anoel said.

"Anyone who's ever known me has experienced anything _but_ happiness," I stated. It was as harsh of a truth as my reality ever got.

"I have…" Anoel replied softly, her voice trailing off as I looked at her.

Then the elevator doors opened, and I walked out.

"Ah, mister Ezdeil, to what do I owe this pleasure?" Ozpin asked, sitting like a Headmaster should behind his vast desk and a surrounding wall of glinting windows.

The very same glint that shined over his glasses.

"The pleasure's all mine," I replied falsely, and he knew it, "I believe our team has acquired a fourth member, if you aren't already aware."

"Oh, I am very much aware of miss Arex Stark joining your ranks," Ozpin replied, turning to regard Anoel with a welcoming nod and a pleased smile, "It's a pleasure to finally meet you in person, miss Anoel."

"It is quite the pleasure to meet a man such as yourself, Headmaster," Anoel replied, giving the man a respectful tip of her cowboy hat a small curtsey.

"We'd like to register her into the system," I followed up, wanting to make this meeting quick and painless.

"That can be arranged, however, she has yet to be tested for proficiency," Ozpin responded, fixing me with his stare now. It was a stare of intrigue, something far befitting of a man silvered by age, "Can I trust that she is more than capable of handling herself? Additionally, more than capable enough to keep her partner safe alongside her own troubles?"

He knew too much to really call himself a disconnected human in this society, "I can personally guarantee that her proficiency and adaptability far exceeds the 90th percentile of your entire freshmen year." I informed.

Ozpin raised an eyebrow to that, a devilishly curious smirk growing across his lips as he changed his countenance to something more… serious.

Something felt off.

"I hope you don't mind, but I find myself, regrettably, in disbelief of that comment," he returned, swiping a hand across his desk as he pulled up his holographic scroll built into its surface.

He then opened up a map of Beacon Academy, which then projected itself up into a digital display of the physical building and its entire cliff side.

"I understand," I said. If someone came up and told me they were stronger than me, I'd rip their arms off and see how far I could kick them into the layers of bedrock beneath the surface of Remnant's crust.

Something worked its way into the gut of my senses, festering there as I felt a twinge of dark, malicious intent begin to flood its way into my array of sensory abilities.

Something was coming.

Ozpin then pulled the image before him and expanded it, standing as he did so as the glass windows surrounding the building tinted slightly.

"Good, then I hope you would find my test for her to be rather fair. I will be observing her aptitude over the next few hours, to which she must take part in," he informed, pulling the image of Beacon further and further back as he expanded the view of the map to go beyond its borders.

Going further, the map began showing the sea of trees of the Emerald Forest and then started to display the mountains in the distance.

"Her test will begin at the beginning of this coming siege on Beacon Academy," Ozpin finished calmly, pulling the image out one last time to reveal something large, rapidly moving, and highlighted red moving in from the ocean, "I believe that is satisfactory enough?" He asked.

I nodded, "She will take part."

The feeling was getting stronger as this thing got closer. It wasn't any ordinary grimm.

"Sir, if you don't mind me prying, what is that thing?" Anoel asked, slipping her silken voice into a curious stupor, staring at the approaching red manifestation of digital polygons.

"That, my dear," Ozpin said, placing his hands on the desk before him as he looked to my partner, "Is a Drakian Hydra."

"What class?" she asked, eyeing the grimm a little more closely.

He smirked, "Dremoha."

"You just made my day," I said, giving the Headmaster a momentary tip of my hat before I turned on my heel and headed for the elevator.

"Oh, mister Ezdeil, one last thing," Ozpin interrupted, slowing my pace slightly, "Do ensure that my school sustains no damage during the extent of the siege. I would much prefer it to remain fully intact."

It wasn't a request.

"What will I get in return, if I do this for you?" I asked, turning to regard the silver-haired man out of the corner of my eye.

"A full team," he replied, a challenging smirk pulling at his lips, "You and miss Stark must pass this test, or I will deny her entry into my Academy."

"And you think I'm not okay with just a three-person team?" I returned, watching as his smirk widened.

"I have already begun searching for a fourth member on my own. I do believe you would very much rather choose your own member than allow me to choose one for you," Ozpin replied.

This man…

"You have yourself a deal," I stated, waiting for any more replies before moving on.

"Don't disappoint me, mister Ezdeil. Though, that task will be quite difficult to begin with, given what I've seen so far," I felt Ozpin smirk behind me one last time before I made it to the elevator, Anoel stepping in with me as we turned around.

His smirk was the last thing we saw before the elevator doors before us sealed shut.

I've always hated it when someone else held all the cards.

* * *

 **Well, you know… I released a chapter earlier this week because I wanted to take Friday off after my finals. I did take that day off, and it was very pleasantly spent just mulling around and heading home for the start of my Winter Break.**

 **However, I had the urge to write Arex, since she's fun, and so I did. And, well, now a 5.1k RH chapter is done and ready for upload, which I will do.**

 **Here's your little early treat for the holidays. I wonder if more will come.**

 **Any theories on Arex's weapon?**

 **The rest were all things that aren't canon or are my own deviations from canon.**

 **For now,** _ **Favorite**_ **and** _ **Follow**_ **.**

 **I look forward to seeing** _ **REVIEWS**_ **for this. You'll be introduced to a LOT of concepts of mine. Feel free to give me your thoughts.**

 **Cya XP**


	14. Hydra

Rogue Huntsman

Hydra

«»

We found Arex sleeping in her room, curled up beneath the blanket of her bed in the afternoon light of day. I was well aware of her early morning escapades, considering I got back when she was leaving the room.

She looked startled then… she looked peaceful now. She seemed to finally be getting a wink of sleep over however long she's spent in perpetual turmoil with her inner demons.

I let Anoel wake her up as I made my way over to Kitsuki. She was reading one of the textbooks. I couldn't care which considering I memorized them all before returning them.

"Feel free to sit this one out," I said, stepping my way between the beds and brushing the curtain of our window aside, "You don't want to face this thing."

" _What thing?"_ I felt her ask, but her response was as predictable as the sunset.

"When you feel Beacon begin to shake and its towers shudder, you can make your decision then," I responded, not really needing to look toward her sign language. I could feel her responses either way.

" _I… don't understand. What are you talking about?"_

I didn't respond, my eyes just watched the horizon and the forest beyond our school's ridge. The trees were swaying unnaturally, acting as a flooding wake in a pool of water behind a beast beneath its surface.

18 minutes until arrival.

I closed the curtain and turned, "It's better off you don't understand what I'm talking about. Just know this thing can kill every student here if it's underestimated."

My eyes turned to see how Anoel was faring and saw her straddling Arex's waist under the covers, slowly turning the girl onto her back to make her sitting position a little more comfortable. If Arex wasn't awake… she would be in the next few seconds.

I didn't stick around to see any more. Anoel already knew what Arex had been requested to do. I needed to be the welcoming party for the Drakian Hydra. If it started tearing into Beacon's walls without much warning, I'd have to expend the energy to repair what was broken.

I'd rather just snap this thing's necks if it so much as reached for a single loose stone littering the walls of this Academy.

At least that way I'd have a little fun.

* * *

My fun was ruined when I got a message from Ozpin saying I couldn't take part in killing the Hydra.

Fine, but I'd be leaving an unknown threat for everyone else to face. Maybe, that way, someone would actually die. I'd get my fun somehow, even a moment of it… Ozpin can't stop me from at least doing that.

The fear of the unknown was the worst fear of them all. Pit a man against an army he knows, and he'll show no fear in his suicidal advance to decimate all opposing forces in his wake. Pit a man before a single enemy of unknown origin, unknown aptitude, unknown appearance, and unknown size…

And you send a lamb to the slaughter.

Preparation, anticipation, planning, tactical integration, it all requires prior knowledge of a situation before its happening.

Nothing was more dangerous than unpredictability.

If you can't see it coming, then it's the most dangerous thing in the world to go against. It's the unknown that strikes us where we can't see… the veiled that leaves us in the shadows…

The hidden that kill us the moment we try to conceive its existence… or the moments where we don't.

Kitsuki _will_ stay put because she's _afraid_.

She knows nothing of what's coming, nobody does. That's what gave me the greatest advantage of them all.

The wind reeked of upturned remnant, accompanied by splintered roots and crumbling dirt. All Dremoha were born and bred with an element… this creature was covered by a thick pungent wave of sea water and humid gases.

It was a byproduct of the sea in name and in appearance, and it was 40 meters out past the immediate tree line before me.

Beneath me spanned a rocky outcrop, nothing but a cliff separating this creature from my boots. Behind me spanned the entirety of Beacon Academy, glinting beneath the light of the evening sun as I stood there in silence.

A silence stifled by the cracking of trunks and the shuddering of trees… broken by the sound of timber cascading and plummeting to the forest floor in heavy crashes of groaning forestry.

This thing sought me out, of all people, it sought me out. It was after the negativity _exuding_ from my skin like a nuclear reactor, radiating from my aura in a permanent glow.

It wanted nothing more than to kill me, to lure itself to the presence of my being and sate its bloodied cravings for darkness and dread. It was among the second to most powerful Grimm in existence…

And it was rushing to its death.

"A-anoel, stop pushing."

Arex's voice graced the wind from behind me and around the corner of a building, her presence only growing nearer as I flexed my gloved hand.

It was nearly time.

"Okay, okay, I'll stop. You have your sword?" Anoel took Arex by the shoulders and turned her around as they walked, checking her back and her waist and finding the forger's weapon attached to the former.

"O-of course, just… what are we doing out here?" Arex reached over her right shoulder just to reaffirm herself of her weapon's presence, gripping at its handle before letting it go.

"It's your initiation, of course!" Ano exclaimed, skipping in my direction as I felt her speed accelerate.

I side-stepped her approach, not really needing to look her way at all to gauge any sort of reactionary response. She slipped past me and nearly tripped over the cliff side, but her balance was staggeringly unparalleled…

Only resulting with a soft click of rocks descending down the outcrop below as she turned and pouted at me.

"Niro! I just wanted a hug!"

"Your hugs are lethal," I muttered, turning to see Arex walk up to us in a confused demeanor. The fact that she had just woken up was evident in her eyes and flushed cheeks, but her hair still seemed soft and well-managed.

Probably Anoel's doing.

"That's why I like to hug you! You can survive them," Anoel continued, making another reach for me, only to grasp at air.

I stood atop Beacon's wall, standing near one of its towers as my boots stood upon the thin stones.

"That's no excuse to hug me in the first place," I spoke lowly, glancing down to see Anoel pout a little more… before turning and snatching Arex into a heated hug of pure affinity.

The poor girl was the only _other_ person who could survive such a capture.

Well, one of _those_ hugs anyway.

The trees in the distance suddenly leaned and toppled, crushed downward under the approaching mass of black scales and glistening hide.

I guess it was here, but it took its sweet time doing so.

I placed my hand on the tower beside me, Ahrulian's fabric bursting in a glowing lime green light as the entirety of Beacon's masonry shined in a crystalline hum. Three pulses were all it needed of my aura, bathing the school in a brief flash of a shining overlay before it faded into a soft shimmer.

The light of the sun reflected off the surface of the school now, basking the forest before us in a suddenly brighter glow as I stepped down, impacting the ground below and moving my way forward.

It would take an amplified orbital bombardment thirty tries to put a dent in that shield I just gave the school's entire structure… and all it took was a small fraction of my aura.

If anyone else tried… they'd sacrifice their life to build up even half of what I just did, and that's with 90 years of training in aura-proficiency.

I learned that trick when I was 7.

"Is that… what I think it is?" Arex asked, drawing her blade from over her shoulder as she enwreathed it in a gushing blaze of orange fire.

"It's a Drakian Hydra honey, and _you_ have to kill it," Anoel explained, taking a step back as she placed her hands behind her neck, "Ozpin's watching, so make sure to put on a show."

"A show, huh?" Arex asked, lowering the tip of her weapon to her side as she turned toward us, "I never liked it when others watch, still don't."

"You'll do great!" Anoel gave the girl two thumbs up and a proud smile as our grave and dangerous threat loomed closer with overaggressive, reptilian strides.

It was hardly worth noting that it had 9 heads let alone towered 22 stories high. Those facts were meaningless. What mattered was that it easily reached us atop this cliff's ridge, reaching even higher than that with ease as it stretched and craned its necks.

Its skin gleamed in the light, dripping with water it exuded naturally as it swept its way across the forest below. All of its eyes streaked in a solid red hue, draining the life around it as it took the atmosphere of Beacon's grounds and staunched it in a stifling blanket of tension.

Four legs roamed forward as its elongated, jagged tail split the ground and slithered behind it. Its body was draconic in its entirety, its heads moreso than any other part of its anatomy.

This thing had an affinity to water… a direct contrast to Arex's affinity. Even moreso, it was one of the elemental counters that clashed with fire in the strongest possible way.

While, fire against water… was a weak altercation at best.

Arex had her work cut out for her in a setting like this. My only job was to lay the groundwork and set up her arena.

The school was at no risk of being touched.

"Arex," I said, catching her attention after a moment's gaze at her opponent, "Fire will be your only way to kill this thing."

"How am I supposed to get through its water though? It's a counter to my own affinity," she responded, quickly turning her gaze to the Hydra as it pushed its way closer to the base of the cliff before us.

Its eyes locked onto my position as if I was the only thing standing between it and a feast that could satisfy its cravings for eternity.

"Its scales and everything inside it are weak to fire if you can break through its sheen of water," I replied, crouching down to the ground as I took a stone from the dirt at my feet.

"But effectively useless if I can't," she sighed, analyzing her target with her eyes.

"I can fix that," I stated, standing back up as I lightly tossed the stone into the air. It was roughly the size of a golf ball, fitting snugly into my fabric-clad palm as I let it fall into Ahrulian's grasp.

"How? It's not like you're going to take away its water or boost my fire, not like you wanted to anyway," Arex retaliated, grabbing her arm as she turned away from me.

Like hell I'd ever do that.

"No, but this thing's too stupid and powerless to stop me from doing this," I tossed the stone one more time and waited another second, watching as the Hydra finally reached the cliff's base and reared its heads back.

Its front claws dug into the cliff's face, eyes all targeting me as it took in a nasty breath of my air, gulping it all down as a bright blue glow suddenly festered in the opening maws of this titan-sized grimm before us.

Each and every head nursed a growing light, eyes narrowing as its heads reared back further…

"Good luck, Arex," I growled, caught the stone… then flicked the solid pebble at the creature's chest.

Our ears were suddenly wracked by the harsh, crashing concussive feedback of the stone breaking the sound barrier. Dirt and air around us suddenly kicked back in its immediate whiplash, blasting away any stray pieces of debris littering the ground around me.

The stone whipped forward and punctured the creature's chest cavity, punching straight through one of its supposedly unbreakable ribs and digging its way to its heart in a single moment of its beating muscle.

Each of the lights before us suddenly faded as its maws slammed shut, a burning whimper rushing its way through its necks as its body crumpled forward from the force of the impact…

All of its weight now forced to its shaking hind legs.

The aura I slipped into the stone burst from within the creature's body before it could regenerate, blazing in a hot embrace before strands snaked out and wrapped around the creature's heart… cracking its hard exterior and nearly shattering it from within.

The core of a Hydra was the only thing keeping it alive and regenerating. The only other method was to burn the flesh of its necks after hacking off its heads, stopping them from regrowing.

This… gave Arex all she needed to fight this thing on even ground.

"A child can kill this thing now," I stated, turning around as the creature fell forward, slamming into the cliffside as it choked on its own spurting, toxic blood, "I expect you to be no different."

It was a colorful lie considering I just enraged it. Not even an army could take out a Hydra in its final throws of its dying breath.

Everything about it amplified in the moments of its own destruction.

If Arex couldn't face this thing alone, then she didn't deserve to be on my team in the first place.

She has every opportunity to impress… but every opportunity to fail. Either way, I didn't need to be here anymore.

So… I left and found my way to the cafeteria as the entirety of Beacon's grounds shook beneath the pained, vengeful wail of a lizard I threw a rock at.

Luck wasn't what Arex needed.

* * *

Arex suddenly kicked back as soon as Niro left, throwing herself away from the creature before her as it slammed one of its many heads into the dirt she once stood upon. Its head was harder than iron… the ground stood no chance as its maw _crushed_ it into a crater.

 _I'll… I'll kill him!_ Arex growled, rolling to her feet as she took off in a hastened dash to avoid a geyser of razor-blasting, boiling water. It was a torrent that could easily melt through a mountainside…

But all it did was crash harmlessly against the shining masonry behind her and flow away from the school's walls.

She grumbled as she leaped over a second sweeping torrent of water, tucking into a roll as soon as she landed to slide beneath a third.

She knew what Niro was doing… but she couldn't do anything to _stop_ him from _doing it_. Literally helpless before his actions to _piss this thing off_.

Her only saving grace was that the Hydra was basically _half-dead_.

That was her _only_ saving grace.

She gave her hair a shake as she glared up at Beacon's high wall, seeing Anoel sitting on top of it with her legs crossed.

The info-broker gave her a calm wave as Arex dug her sneakers into the dirt and changed direction, saving herself from a world of hurt that suddenly impacted the ground before her.

The Hydra seemed to like throwing its head into things… maybe it was to help build the fact that it was a _rampaging menace_.

She had enough of it.

Arex's sweater suddenly fluttered and pushed outward as the slits sewn into its back were brushed by a flash of something black. Not a second had the opportunity to pass before two slender, sleek black wings slipped out of the back of her light sweater.

Her feathers immediately shot out and stretched to full wingspan, both wings extending past 8 feet in length individually as she ran up the wall in front of her.

"Throw yourself into this you mutated snake," she growled, running up masonry as not one- not even two- but four of its heads bashed into the stone wall as she dodged from side to side.

Those very heads caved in on themselves and gushed with black, acidic blood… only for that blood to seep harmlessly down Niro's glowing green shield.

That was the only _good thing_ Niro did recently.

Arex immediately capitalized and reached the apex of her run, turning at the peak of the wall beneath her feet and slowing to a gravitational limbo…

Before using her wings to capture the air and surge her downward, emblazoning her weapon in an overwhelming amount of fire as she slashed passed the heads crushed against the wall and _cleaved through_ every single one of the four.

Cauterizing the wounds in the process.

Five active heads remained while those four were stunted of their regeneration.

Arex let those necks recede and fall limply against the creature's body, landing softly onto the ground below as she flexed her wings.

She was tired, she was hungry, and she _definitely_ didn't want to be here of all places… fighting against a _Drakian Hydra_.

Oh sure, it'll secure her place on team ELA, but she wasn't even sure if she _wanted_ to be on their team anyway. Part of her wanted to, but that very same part of her pissed her off in the process.

She gave an aggravated swipe of her blade, spewing flames everywhere as she audibly growled… then took a breath.

 _Focus now, take it out on them later._ Her moment of reasoning was the only reason why she was suddenly able to throw herself out of the way of a combined triple torrent of blasting water.

"Where the hell is everybody anyway?! The school's under attack!" she called out, voice laced with annoyance as she took a dive to the side and flew into the air.

"They're on their way, honey! So be a dear and kill this thing fast, okay?!" Anoel called up to her with cupped hands, watching Arex's frame disappear into the clouds, "You can do it!"

"I don't want to!" Arex called back before exiting earshot range.

Arex cleared the space between the cliff and the clouds in seconds, pushing herself even higher beyond that point even easier as her speed increased exponentially. Her wings helped her climb higher and higher before reaching the point she wanted to ascend to.

Then she killed all her momentum in a single, off-beat flap of her wings… throwing speed and air away in front of her as she closed her eyes.

She sensed something from Ruby earlier… something that explained the smaller girl's jitters.

Her mind had adapted to accommodate a shift in the perception of time, only working to accelerate its thinking processes and confusing the owner as a result. Ruby was the kind of person to find focusing on something boring to be an impossible task…

Especially if her attention span was running as rampant as her body and muscles.

There… that was it.

Speed.

Something inside of Arex clicked as her eyes opened, the sky falling away before her as she slowly turned herself around.

Her irises shined beneath a sheen of her own aura as they melted into pools of bright silver, matching Ruby Rose's eye color exactly as her momentum multiplied itself thirtyfold.

Terminal velocity was non-existent as the sound barrier shattered, emitting a shockwave that dispersed every cloud in the area as Arex descended in a streak of bright red light and fluttering rose petals.

The air resistance only provided her sword more friction to increase in heat, smoldering its hearth beyond the melting point of steel as she crashed back down to Remnant in a blaze of blinding light.

A distant, homing whistle was all the creature heard before its legs were crushed beneath a sudden downward force slamming into the base of its necks. Its red eyes bulged for a moment as hot steel _melted through_ almost _all_ of them, stopping after severing three trunks of scale and flesh.

One of the trunks was already headless while the other two weren't. All three suddenly fell limply to the ground below with sickening thuds on the forest floor, covering it in splatters of acid.

Three active heads left.

"That was awesome, Arex!" Anoel called out, the tip of a bright orange foam finger blazing with fire as she waved it back and forth. She seemed content to just spectate.

The info-broker watched as Arex stood up with shaky legs, wings hanging loosely at her sides as the grip on her blade loosened. Her fire was dulling, and from this distance, Anoel could sense Arex's aura quickly draining.

She frowned at that. _So, this is the extent of her affinity and semblance in tandem… we need to work on that._

Arex was draining her energy far too quickly for her liking, and Anoel noticed the Hydra recovering faster than the girl on its back.

The disorientation from the fall kept any hope of balance as far away from Arex's mind as possible as the mass of black rocked forward, throwing Arex from its hide before it swung its remaining three heads back…

And slammed them into her.

The impact sent out an audible crack as Arex's body was hurled into the ground, slamming into the dirt atop the cliff as she bounced and rolled. Black wings cradled an already frail body as the girl skidded to a stop, lightly bumping into the base of the wall beneath Anoel.

She wasn't moving…

The Hydra took every advantage it could get as all three remaining heads tipped back and festered a bright blue glow. Each throat began to steam, billowing white mist for only a few moments before they tipped forward and pushed together.

Three torrents of scorching water burst from their maws as each blast swirled together into a twisting, surging geyser.

"Duty calls," Anoel sighed, slipping from the wall she sat upon as she fell toward the ground below.

An identical set of wings slipped from the confines of her jacket, only staying out just long enough to instantly propel her beyond terminal velocity.

Each expanse of slender feathers disappeared back beneath her jacket as she crashed into the ground below, fingertips digging into the dirt as she lowered into a forceful crouch.

"Let me show you what you're missing, Arex," she muttered, her angered red eyes brimming with fire as her pupils burned like embers in the night.

Flames flickered from her irises as the combined blast of water drew nearer… only to suddenly waver and evaporate as the temperature around Anoel surged.

A sea of fire suddenly erupted from Anoel's aura and flooded outward like an emerging ocean of orange light, crashing against walls and towers and overflowing from the cliff's ridge across the entire expanse of the school's borders they stood upon.

Every stream of flame suddenly pulled inward as Anoel stood up, all of it redirecting themselves upon the creature against the cliffside in an overbearing tidal wave of matter reducing heat.

In seconds, the Drakian Hydra was forced to its knees and thrown back, toppling over into the forest below as a blazing sky descended upon its exposed hide… scorching it beyond regeneration and cracking every scale covering its body.

Every breath was choked on, its eyes long since incinerated, and its body no longer harder than steel… but more brittle than the dry branches of a burning bush.

It was only a matter of time before it died.

So, Anoel left it like that, whimpering beneath the throws of its own pain as she let her flames die out. The light in her irises faded, what was once red now quickly turned into a concerned dark blue as she made her way over to Arex's curled form and kneeled before her.

She finally recognized an alarm blaring from somewhere behind the wall… now that she was closer to it.

She was also faintly aware of the cascade of footfalls behind her, several more descending from the wall above her as she sensed the presence of students finally arriving on scene.

She'd leave the Hydra to them.

For now, she took Arex into her arms and disappeared into the Academy, letting students pass her by as they rushed to defend their school.

* * *

I pushed my way into the cafeteria, the alarms not blaring yet for some reason. Ozpin was probably biding his time with actually setting them off to see Arex's independent skills.

He was willing to go that far just to test us, to test _my_ team…

I couldn't tell if he was a strategic genius or an ignorant madman. Either way, there were still students in here mingling about during their moments of downtime. Some were eating, most were talking.

That was usually how it went.

At least a few of them actually sensed what was going on, considering a girl with scarlet hair was busily, and demandingly, dragging a reluctant boy in a purple beanie in the direction of the Drakian Hydra outside.

I was surprised the collar of his jacket didn't rip with how quickly she charged down the hall, dragging him by the edges of his canvas shoes for most of the way.

Great, who let a ticking time bomb and a wannabe into Beacon Academy? She was volatile… heart-wrenchingly so. The girl's aura fluctuated between a calm repression and a ravaging _storm_ , something only the truly brave or the truly suicidal would go up against.

All in that short, petite body of hers…

Her partner must have wanted to kill himself to save most of his sanity.

Either way, they were the first on call, it seemed. I'll give them a little props, considering they were the _first people I've seen_ that _actually_ sensed what was going on.

I sat myself down at a corner table, back to the windows as I pulled out my scroll. Over time, more and more students began to file out of the cafeteria in varying degrees of rushes and jogs. Finally, someone had the decency to run back and yell to the rest of the occupants of what was occurring outside the walls.

That got everyone moving.

The cafeteria emptied itself in seconds as every student disappeared down the hallway, leaving it devoid of life… save for me.

That was how I preferred it.

The sound of Jaune Arc slamming unceremoniously into the window behind me didn't deter me from playing my game. Not even the pathetic sound of his whimpers as he slid down the pane of glass brought my attention.

He must have been thrown pretty far… considering the Hydra was over 70 meters away.

I was more impressed with the glass, considering it didn't break beneath his hard, stupid head.

* * *

 **Did I downplay a Dremoha? Maybe, but it was definitely dangerous, lethal, and destructive. Niro's just… well… Niro.**

 **It stood no chance, even when he** _ **wasn't**_ **there.**

 **I hope Arex is okay, though. She's not very durable, so taking a hit like that should never happen. She can't take those.**

 **Sheesh, here I am trying to write for Flame and out comes another chapter for RH. Gah, I forget what motivation feels like sometimes... it's so fleeting these days. I need to find a way to motivate myself to write for my main story now, this one always feels so easy.**

 **I blame RWBY and the fact it didn't release a real episode recently, only a World of Remnant informational blurb about... something. I haven't actually watched it yet.**

 **For now,** _ **Favorite**_ **and** _ **Follow**_ **.**

 **I look forward to seeing** _ **REVIEWS**_ **for this. You'll be introduced to a LOT of concepts of mine. Feel free to give me your thoughts.**

 **Cya XP**


	15. Twins

Rogue Huntsman

Twins

«»

"That's all I can do," Skyla's voice was one of two in team ELA's dorm room, the only other two occupants currently voiceless in an endeavor neither could truly take part in, "She's fine and will be fine, no matter how much damage she sustained."

The shorter girl stood from her spot beside Arex on her bed, taking her scarf from its draped perch on the bed's post and wrapping it back around her neck.

" _What did you do, if you don't mind me asking?"_ Kitsuki asked, catching Skyla's side glance as the girl turned to leave.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't catch most of that," she apologized, giving the small kitsune an apologetic tilt of the head as she turned toward her, "I've been reading up on sign language, but I haven't learned it all quite yet."

"She's wondering what you did to heal Arex," Anoel supplied, sitting softly beside her softly breathing sister.

Skyla glanced back, catching the falling traces of Anoel's gaze before the elder sister looked back to the girl lying beneath the covers. The tips of black wings furled and unfurled silently outside the reaches of the comforter, calmly twitching against the expanse of the two bedded mattresses pushed together.

"I didn't do anything myself," Skyla replied, pulling at her sleeves as she made her way to the door, "I only accelerated the actions of the cells in her body. She did the rest."

"You're capable of that?" Anoel responded, turning most of her gaze to the door, "I've heard of your semblance before, and what it's capable of. But, from what I've noticed, it's only ever accelerated the movement of molecules."

"There's a lot of things people don't understand about me," Skyla sighed, giving the sister a small nod from over her jacket's shoulder, "Most of it purposefully hidden," she continued, dipping her head further, "all of it unfortunately misunderstood."

Her final words were softer than the rest, and out of the occupants of the room, Kitsuki was the only one who could make out what the girl muttered before she left.

The soft click of their dorm room door was all that remained in the silence of the bedroom, nothing else stirred but the quiet breathing of the healing teammate in her shared bed.

Anoel didn't catch any movement until she felt the small shift of the mattress beneath her. Her shadowed eyes caught Kitsuki crawling closer to the two sisters, carefully making her way forward before sitting back on her heels.

The elder sister's eyes tracked the following movement of Kitsuki's tails, seeing them sway back and forth before watching them settle against the mattress behind the white haired girl.

" _How badly was she hurt?"_ she asked, placing her pale hands into the sheets in front of her as her ears drooped, golden-orange eyes never leaving Arex before her.

"As reckless as she was, it could've been worse," Anoel replied, shifting ever-so-slightly herself as she crossed her legs beneath herself, "She's the definition of a glass cannon with an already half-damaged frame and missing most of her ammunition. That hit she took could've killed her, if she didn't have what was left of her aura."

Kitsuki stayed her hands, keeping silent as she quietly looked up to Anoel's eyes. It was that serious?

" _I didn't realize…"_ she signed, fox ears flattening entirely.

"Neither did anybody else," Anoel calmly stated, pushing her hat up and getting it out of her line of sight, "Her aura was depleted, almost entirely diminished with the overuse of both her Semblance and her Affinity. It's why I brought her here to begin with, to help her get better at that. So when the time comes for her to use it…"

" _She won't exhaust herself,"_ Kitsuki finished, getting a nod from Anoel in return.

The info-broker brought up her knee and pushed her back against the bedrest, bending her leg up to wrap her arms around, "I know it's probably hard to trust anyone on this team…"

Anoel paused as she let out a breathless sigh, dipping her head down before tilting it, casting the corner of her gaze at Kitsuki's own apprehensive one.

"I know it's why you haven't been too involved with us or our endeavors. But, if there's anyone I'd ask you to get close to," the older girl's eyes turned downward, switching her gaze to her sister, "it'd be her. You can forget about Niro and me, we're enough of a problematic pair as we are."

" _I think I can make that decision myself, but,"_ Kitsuki leaned down and kept her gaze up, catching Anoel's down casting eyes with her own, _"there's still a lot of time for us to get acquainted. We've only just become a team."_

Kitsuki leaned back once she had Anoel's attention, soon bringing her tails in front of herself as she brushed her elegant fingers through them.

" _Besides, I think I've been the only one, outside of your little inner circle, to see Niro's nicer side,"_ she admitted.

Anoel couldn't help but smile, even if her amusement was a little short right now.

"You haven't seen his nicer side yet," the info-broker replied quietly, gently shaking her head as she loosened her arms' grip around her raised knee, "When I said 'anybody else', I left Niro out of all the people who didn't notice Arex's aura diminish."

The response brought the kitsune's attention back to the glowing orbs beneath Anoel's black cowboy hat.

"In fact, nobody _but_ him could've realized in time," Anoel sighed, pulling her other leg up now as she held her legs against her chest then hid her chin behind them, "I wouldn't be surprised… if he played a part in why Arex didn't break any bones with that last hit she took."

Even if he wasn't there… even if he was on the other side of the school… he saved Arex's life, however impartial it may have been to him, he somehow did it.

" _If you didn't sense it or know it, how come you're so certain he helped?"_ Kitsuki asked, falling into her curious stupor, only to grace it with the sympathetic gaze found in a tone of understanding.

"Because I know him," Anoel replied simply, "Arex, despite what he says, isn't someone he can ignore, especially in a situation like that. He was keeping his senses on her, even after walking away."

" _It… sounds like you two are the only ones he actually cares about,"_ Kitsuki replied, her tails wrapping tightly around her waist a moment later.

"We're the only ones he has left to care about," Anoel responded, a breathlessness settling inside the quietness of her reply, "Nobody else ever really cared for him, so it was only fair if he returned that small favor to the world."

* * *

Dust rattled the windows of the cafeteria as I sat back in my seat, dark boots crossed at the ankles and resting across the bench I found myself on. My hands were behind my head, my hat placed over my eyes and the bridge of my nose, relaxing entirely as the siege continued.

Time was moving at its normal pace again, even after I personally moved through its stalled reaches so effortlessly. It was getting on my nerves with how utterly senseless it was ticking by, grinding away at my patience even after neglecting me so long ago.

Time was the overseer of all things, they say. Well, to that I say time is the biggest, loneliest, consistent piece of silent, misconceived arbitrary garbage ever to be defined in any world similar or different to the sad excuse of this forsaken reality.

Hell, this isn't even half bad… compared to the majority of the other ones.

"Well, well, well…" a light, young voice tried to interrupt my admittedly calm thoughts, cutting in from the far end of my cafeteria table, "if it isn't mister tall, dark, and arrogant."

She sounded fourteen? Maybe fifteen? I couldn't honestly tell, with how short a height that voice was emitting from.

"Hasn't anyone ever told you not to talk to strangers?" I replied with half a mind, remaining unmoving in the darkness of my worn cowboy hat.

"Hasn't anyone ever told _you_ that _helping people_ saves lives?" the little voice responded, making a stab for my pride.

Every man had his pride, no matter what they are or how powerful they become. My pride was on an entirely different level than the rest of the human race, something far beyond anyone's reach but my own.

However…

"And yet, you're here, talking to a stranger," I replied lowly, wondering how far this person's thoughts traveled before letting her mouth run.

"He's not exactly wrong, Ciel." the second nuisance I sensed finally spoke, giving me a very good idea of how smart he probably thought he was in the polite formality he set his personality to.

The apparent brother of the shortstack at my table took a seat across from me, it seemed, followed by the girl sliding into her place beside the one who just spoke.

"L-Leo! You're not supposed to take his side!" she whispered in a harsh, higher pitched exclamation, finger audibly flicking her 'Leo' on his shoulder.

Go away, please… while I still have my sanity.

Not like anyone can take it away in the first place.

"In whatever case this may be, it was your decision to come here. Neither of us even need to eat, so your only directive, for whatever reason, was to pursue this fellow before us," I sensed Leo gesture toward me before he turned his gaze back to his sister, "I don't even know why you wanted to confront him."

"Because he's just sitting here, that's why," the girl responded with a literally audible pout, "He's not doing anything."

"That's hardly the case, Ciel," Leo held up his hand, then pointed to the windows, "See that? That right there?"

There were a few moments of pause, then the girl took a glance, letting out a short whistle. She sounded as if she were almost impressed.

" _He_ did that?" Ciel asked skeptically, standing up from her seat before walking around the table, past me, and to the wall.

Leo nodded, telegraphed like the morning news broadcast. I didn't even need to use my senses to know he nodded. It was just in his character.

Ciel knocked against my aura shield and I had a brief part of myself realize how easy it'd be to fry her, but I repressed that part as soon as it arose. It's not like it'd be much effort, it'd just be a bit rude… considering I was starting to tolerate Leo's existence a little more than I first intended.

The girl then proceeded to pick up a nearby table and swing it at my shield, shattering the poor piece of cafeteria furniture in a miserable display of falling fragments.

"Huh… It's pretty solid isn't it?" Ciel realized, brushing her fingers against the gleaming surface of the cafeteria's window.

I took that moment to reform the table in her offhand and lift my hat.

"I don't suppose either of you would be interested in leaving?" I muttered, my lime green eyes glancing out of the shadow of my hat toward the shoes of the girl by the window, "Or, are you two keen on bothering me…?"

"One of us is, the other is simply being pulled along for the ride," Leo commented, resting his cheek in the palm of his hand.

"Come on Leo, we can't let this guy just appear and show up big brother like it's nothing," Ciel said, whirling around with a fan of her skirt to face her brother, "Besides, someone like that is someone _I_ want to meet."

Big brother… she says. Oh, don't you goddamn tell me…

I slowly sat up and placed my hat back on my head, finally caring enough to _actually look_ at the two around me to see what they looked like.

You're kidding me… just what kind of hellhole was I dragged into?

The two looked biologically identical, if it weren't for one being male and the other female. Same age, same white hair color, same sky blue eyes, same pale skin, same black and white color theme to their attire…

Same thing as that asshole I ran into in the hallway, the very one who stopped my aura-less punch with his bare hand.

That punch could rip through bedrock.

The female twin, Ciel, had a similar stature and frame to Kitsuki in terms of a balance between a petite body and a forbidden beauty in her slender frame, teetering at the edge of being well-developed.

Kitsuki had tails and fox ears, so she was already cuter by default.

The girl wore a blouse of, oh look at that, the same color as her hair. White. A black dress vest with two knee-reaching tails fit her body snugly, leading down into a black pleated skirt. Unsurprisingly, as if to spite all other colors in existence, its trim and interior were white as well.

The piece of attire didn't even reach past her mid-thighs. Beneath all of that, though, she wore black knee high boots, white zippers, _of course_ , which zipped up on the outer sides of her footwear.

Who was I to talk, though? I was wearing all black.

The kid behind me, after I turned to regard him as well, wore a long-sleeved dress shirt. It was rainbow colored, blindingly engulfing my eyes in its splendor and arbitrarily flooding rays of pure-

It was white. Goddamnit, it was white.

It was covered by a black, thin fabric jacket with white trim and an upturned collar. I only knew of few people who _actually_ looked good in upturned collars, and this kid… was not one of them. He needed black hair, a long neck, finely trimmed facial hair, and a stupidly powerful attunement to _magic_ , _sigils_ , and _levitation_.

The rest was _actually_ differently colored from the rest of his ensemble. He wore simple gray jeans and gray shoes.

"Well, it would seem as though we now have his attention. So, is it time to meet him?" Leo pointed out, glancing around me after I sat up to cast his glance to Ciel.

The girl quickly made her way back to her seat, which ordinarily would've been faster than the trained eye could track. Unfortunately, it wasn't anything more than a boring stroll in my eyes, considering I was one of the few that time neglected.

It could quicken, it could slow, it could stop for all I cared. I was the one blight it just flowed around, no matter what attempted to control it.

She even took a moment to put the table back where she found it.

"Hi," Ciel waved to me, swaying back and forth on the bench as she met my hard gaze with her own brightly smiling one, "My name's Ciel, this is Leo, and we're your new neighbors!"

Go crawl in the corner and re-contemplate your puny existence, shortstack.

I swear, if these two are anything like their brother… I'm going to singlehandedly eviscerate every single morsel of graham crackers in this entire world and all realities it's relevant to. From what Anoel mentioned, that was the asshole's apparent life essence.

Not like he drew any power or life from the crackers anyway, they're just the one thing he actually avidly eats.

"What can you possibly do to keep me here?" I asked, placing my arms on the table before me in some amount of bored offhandedness I could do without.

"Maybe a thing or two about us?" the girl offered.

"You think I actually have any questions remotely associated with _either_ of you?" I asked in return, holding back the fact that they're annoyingly vague enough right now to actually have a few curiosities settled.

"Awe, come on grumpy butt, wouldn't you like to know more about who you're dealing with rather than rely on that personal info broker all the time?" she asked.

"She knows many things. But like all others, even she does not know everything," Leo added.

"Nobody needs to know everything. That's a pipe dream people usually have, but nobody ever reaches. And if you're referring to my partner," I turned my gaze to Ciel, narrowing it slightly beneath my hat, "Don't neglect the fact her very presence gathers information like a conduit of magnetic fields. Though, you probably couldn't sense that… given the fact you couldn't determine whose aura shield was up around the school right now."

I doubt she cared to recognize it, anyway.

"Couldn't? Or rather, not be concerned with who put it up?"

She was just happy enough to see it in place, then. It wasn't like it was important either way, considering its mere activation was so subtle it could've been mistaken for a masked field. That just came with the territory of larger structures.

Give it too much, and the whole exterior will compress and crumble. Give it too little, and it just fades away. Intricacy is key.

That's why I jammed it full of enough energy to excavate a mountain from its high perch on the world of humankind.

Not that anybody recognized the general term of humans anyway, considering how idiotic society tends to be with the faunus.

"Your brother seemed to sense it just fine. In fact, he knew exactly who put it in place," I said, turning my gaze to Leo at Ciel's side, "But whether or not either of you sensed it doesn't matter. You offer me information."

I paused, letting those words stall in the air as the ruckus of heavy combat stifled the air outside the windows behind me.

"Do you realize what you're offering?" I asked, lowering my voice's tone.

"Hey, we give you a little something something, you give us a little something something. It's only fair since you're not the kind of person who'd answer our questions freely or make small talk with anyone besides your team. Unless, there's something in it for you in some way."

"What you see is what you get," I replied evenly, "The fact you think I even hold any small talk with my team is admirable, but false in every way. If we were to trade _any_ amount of information in _any_ regard, the balance of their values will be weighed by the party offering it. With that being said, why am I of any interest to either of you?"

"Plenty of reasons! Of which I'll soon discover! Maybe!"

Revealing any information about myself has always been a mistake in the past. Never once has it ever been for the benefit of myself, not even with Anoel. The only benefit she used as an excuse for the matter was getting to know me.

I didn't see that as a benefit for myself. In the end, she told me her life's story.

I didn't care at the time.

Time's change.

"To see whether or not this transaction has any hope of gaining any ground, I'll start with a simple question. Whether or not you answer it is up to you, but it'll tell me everything I need to know of how little you care about actually getting to know the person in front of you."

My gaze hardened as I brushed my fingers across the front rim of my hat, pulling it down ever so slightly before I adjusted the tilt of my head.

"Bones are brittle, fragile enough to snap like twigs," I started, lowering my fingers to press one of them into the surface of the table my arms rested on. Its structure slowly began to crack as I applied a faint amount of pressure, pushing slightly further to shatter my half of its reaches moments before it all rebuilt itself, "Your older brother, and all that's left of his kin, don't follow those rules. Why?"

"Oho! Now we're asking some spicy questions! You got this, right Leo?"

"Are you asking me to explain because you don't remember, or-?"

"I remember. I just suck at explaining it compared to you or big brother."

"Very well then… To be truthful with you, the matter is simple, yet not so. Or rather, simple to explain what it is, but difficult to explain the 'How' behind it. Which I'm assuming is another matter you also wish to understand."

"I couldn't care less about your heritage, where you come from, or what you are. All of you are easily not what you appear to be. The only one who actually has any sense of their upbringing is the kitsune, but she's of no interest to me," I replied, resting my arms back on the table, "What I'm asking for is how unbreakable they are."

"All that either of us know at the moment is that our 'Black Bones' are entirely indestructible, and even incapable of being bent or warped. This includes the ligaments and cartilage that connect the joints together. On a rather… difficult request our brother made of Ms. Kitsukami, she attempted to superheat his bones to degrees hotter than the heat the sun is able to produce. This, like all other experiments and attempts, failed."

"Using the sun as a comparison for heat is hardly worth any words, considering the heat it actually exudes isn't noteworthy at all," I returned, "Exertion is different than the condensed heat of the core of a star, which alone rivals the very heat it releases over time."

Indestructible… Everything about that word is a lie. Nothing is ever truly indestructible. If something were, by definition, upon death, not even the slow decay of time would erase the object from existence. It becomes a part of creation, and even long after the universe's end, it'll remain.

It won't erode or break down, it remains in a world without substance, which breaks every law it can possibly hold as a reality with any relativity.

All indestructible objects are either constrained by the stalling of time within its structure, denying it the ability to physically change in any way, or stopped from changing through magic.

But if that was the case, then it isn't truly indestructible. All magic dissipates over time, none can ever exist in the perpetual expansion of time's vastly reaching trails.

There was only really one way to explain this. And that explanation, in and of itself, has always been the biggest cheat there was in a system so constrained it constantly tears itself apart beneath its own rules and laws.

"Immortals," I continued, leaving my last statement behind as I leveled my gaze back to their eyes, "Every last one of you, save for the kitsune."

They seemed as though they hesitated for a moment or two to confirm my statement.

"Yes… But, our bones are not a part of our immortality. That is another matter altogether."

"We've read into virtually anything and everything we could find. We almost gave up on finding an explanation. That was until we came across a legend we found in a book once."

"The best way to explain it is that our 'Black Bones' is a phenomenon that is a very rare occurrence between certain… beings. 'Black Bones' on their own are extremely durable, but what we have… It's an occurrence that only took place twice far beyond our time ages upon ages ago."

"Like Leo vaguely mentioned, 'Black Bones' is already an occurrence that is rare, but not ultra rare. What we have are definitely 'Black Bones', only ours are more souped up than the original version."

Or, so she says…

"An age feels a lot longer than a mere expanse of numbers and years. Ages should never be used lightly, and neither should a millennium," I replied, doubting their explanation considering their immortality didn't forsake the corrosion of time. They were born, they weren't created at the start of time and came into existence for all the ages to pass them by.

True immortality is unforgiving like that, considering it's a gift from a superior being that curses the recipient to the ends of time itself.

Something that has no true end.

"Belief is different from hard fact, in the end. Even you don't truly believe every word you spoke, neither of you does," I continued, turning my attention ever so slightly to the window as the sound of battle continued to muffle its way through the glass, "I only asked how unbreakable your older brother's bones were, not the history of all your bones or the story behind them. However…"

I respected honor as much as the next person, but only when honor was fair. Honor is interpretable, which makes it delicate. It runs parallel, or it runs itself askew, all in the eye of the beholder who offers it.

In this case, there was honor in fairness, for the most part.

"In exchange for your spiel, what do you want to know?" I asked, seeing this exchange through.

"What's a tough critter like you doin' in a place like this?" Ciel leaned in closer to me, her voice donning a horrendous attempt of an accent from a Kingdom across the sea.

"Forgive her. What she meant to ask, is that for someone as capable and competent as you are, why is it that you are attending Beacon Academy? Surely a man of your talents… and… well… personality, would see attending this academy as a waste of time. What draws you here?"

I gave them a condescending smirk. Why? Because I could.

"Information," I stated simply, turning my full attention back to them, "Nothing more."

"Nu-uh tough guy. You're not getting away that easily. You've got your fine, feathery friend for that sort of thing. If I didn't know any better… I'd say it's personal… You looking for someone?"

Her senses were attuned enough to at least sense the feathers beneath Anoel's coat. I could give her that.

"More or less," I returned, regarding this conversation as far beyond necessary. But all of it, despite being part of my past and why I'm even here, is far from actually being information I have any intent to hide.

Somehow, though, Ciel knew what questions to ask.

"I'm looking for information to find someone from my past, someone who knew my father. Their identity was only ever known to him and no one else, which is why I'm here to find answers. This is the first lead Anoel's had in a long time."

If they had any sense to them, they could discern my methods and why I've been so careful here, despite my recklessness and ill-tempered personality. It was the fastest and most efficient way to catch the Headmaster's attention.

Not just that, but I drew in the ire of Beacon's students, which makes my job all the easier to stand out. The only issue is…

How to get the information, considering Ozpin would be reluctant to supply it to someone he _knows_ would immediately hunt that person down and leave his school on the spot.

Ozpin knew my father, after all.

Ciel chuckled slightly and slapped a hand on the table.

"That's why you've been acting like a silent musclehead? Trying to get Ozpin's attention? Dude, he's already got part of his focus on you already. You don't need to waste as much energy as you have been."

I pulled the rim of my hat down slightly as I stood up, turning to regard them at my side as I turned my attention to the speaker systems of the cafeteria. They were still muted by my aura, but I made sure to enforce the blockade further before responding.

Ozpin had the annoying tendency to listen in on his students. It was my countermeasure to that.

"I have no intention of staying here longer than necessary. After all, nobody would willingly remain in the one place they despise most in the world."

That was putting it lightly, since this was only one of several schools across the kingdoms of the world. This just so happened to be the one with the man who knew my father. Anything past that was irrelevant.

"Come on dude, Beacon isn't as bad as you're making it out to be," Ciel defended.

"Besides that point, you may very well be only encouraging Ozpin to withhold the information for an even longer period of time, whether it would be to somehow fit you into his schemes… or for his own entertainment," Leo commented as well, "Though personally, we're inclined to believe the first option."

I hummed in mild amusement, "If you paid attention to what I mentioned of my partner earlier, you'd realize just how meaningless your response really was."

All it'd take is for Ozpin to merely place the answer I needed anywhere close to his subconscious thoughts, and that's all it'd take to hunt whoever it was that killed my father down.

Anoel is an info-broker. I never once explained _how_ she gathered her information. None of which, in any regard, is the reading of thoughts. That assumption alone proves how ignorant someone can be when basing their guesses around purposefully vague insinuation.

No… she's far more precise than that.

"Hmmmm… How peculiar…" Leo replied, raising a hand to his chin, "It doesn't seem she's able to read minds. That would be far too simple. I must admit, I am more curious now as to how she acquires information than I was previously. Otherwise, you would have had your answer long ago simply by meeting with Ozpin. Then again, he himself is a rather strange man. Vexingly so."

So is Anoel.

I doubt he was ever curious to begin with, but he wasn't intellectually challenged enough to realize the reading of thoughts is something far too exaggerated to really work.

Imagine peering into the mind of another being, replacing your thoughts with theirs, for merely a moment, because that's the only way to truly recognize whatever it is you'll be seeing. Now, take several hours to discern the subconscious from the conscious, the inner voice from the reiteration of past events, past sounds, past images, and decipher everything you see in those few seconds you have…

Before you go clinically mad and forget everything you once knew about yourself, then come back with nothing else but assured self-destruction.

Anoel's abilities are far more complex than that.

"Ask her yourself, if you're actually curious. Be advised," I began, turning my gaze down to Leo in a moment of warning, "She'll know more and more about you the more you do, so be prepared for that. On a separate note, however…"

I turned my gaze back to the window, where I felt a sudden surge of heated energy from the battlegrounds of the Hydra outside. It's been a fairly long time, and considering Anoel injured it so heavily before she left, it was only evident how useless most of the student body is with how slowly they finished it off.

A blinding white light suddenly engulfed the entire cafeteria through the windows before us, shining in for several brief seconds as I felt scorching heat radiate off the shield of my aura placed inside the masonry of the school.

A distant crystalline hum was all that remained as the light began to fade, and moments later, I felt the presence of the Hydra begin to fade away.

Someone must have killed it.

It was about damn time.

"Looks like someone finally got around to finishing the lizard off," I finished.

"Haha! Told ya big brother and Foxy would roast and filet its ass!" Ciel exclaimed behind me as she smacked Leo on the shoulder.

"Congratulations," I returned lowly, "The rest of your team finished off something that was 87% dead."

"Trust me, even at full health those two would've smoked him just like that!" she retaliated, snapping her fingers.

"They better," I replied, turning further away before I headed for the door, my aura shield slowly deteriorating from the bricks and windows of the school as I left, "I flicked a stone at it earlier to piss it off. Nearly killed it."

Ciel simply laughed.

"That's totally something big brother would have done when he was younger! Ugh… It just reminds me how much more serious and responsible he is now… Well, just a bit more. He still has… ideas like that time to time. Remember that one time with the paperclip?"

"I most certainly do," replied Leo.

"You don't even want to know what I can do with a paperclip, something several times more durable than a mere stone," I returned, taking my leave from the room, "Let alone what I did when I was younger."

"Whoa," the girl whispered, before raising her voice, "You gotta show us that sometime!"

I ignored her request, considering it wasn't anything more than a party trick at this point.

Nobody wants to see party tricks that's been done before.

"If you're thinking that it's just a stupid party trick, I will kick your butt until you show it to me! Maybe! Or you know… ask nicely enough times!"

"You can try," I muttered, leaving her mind games and voice behind as I made my way down the hallway.

There was nothing she could do to change the infestation of aggravation and irritation that manifests every time her older brother so much as gets mentioned, let alone appears physically in any small proximity around myself or my teammates.

Asking nicely, so much as he's even remotely involved, is as far fetched as an ocean of water pouring itself into the pinpoint tip of an immutable needle, which, by definition, has no possible way of changing its physical composition in any minuscule way.

She'd have to bend every rule already in place for that small token of inquiry to have a glimpse of hope to actually work.

In the end, the twins were several times more tolerable than their older counterpart. In every goddamn way.

For now… there was somewhere else I needed to be. Somebody was waking up soon.

* * *

 **Heh… uh… more RH? Yay? I know, I know, I need to work on Flame. But I've been unmotivated and on Winter Break as of late, so my drive to write for anything has been pretty low. RH has just been something that's always been easy to write for me.**

 **And so, here's another chapter. I'll be working on Flame soon after this, considering its most recent update is nearly done anyway.**

 **I just need to add 2-4k more to it. Which, in hindsight, sounds easy enough.**

 **Thoughts? More particularly, which is the obvious one, the resolution to the Hydra fight? Which none of my characters witnessed, so it won't exactly be detailed.**

 **Ciel and Leo are more characters owned by 'andy2396', who also helped make sure all of their responses in this chapter were in character. So, a strong thanks to him for helping write this one.**

 **For now,** _ **Favorite**_ **and** _ **Follow**_ **.**

 **I look forward to seeing** _ **REVIEWS**_ **for this. You'll be introduced to a LOT of concepts of mine. Feel free to give me your thoughts.**

 **Cya XP**


	16. Visitors

Rogue Huntsman

Visitors

«»

Arex woke up to a pale glow engulfing the room, burning in from the window as a wave of heat passed over the school and its courtyards. Her sensory for heat signatures, as sensitive as it already is, flared beyond recognition for her.

Her senses spiked, but as quickly as they rose, the light and heat died out. The room fell back into dim darkness, fading away from the bleary white she witnessed mere moments ago.

It was enough to wake her up.

Yellow irises opened, confusion nestled away within their reflective gleams, but a slightly surprised, yet tired, gaze soon matched it when she looked around. Her body…wasn't aching.

In fact, it didn't feel like it was bruised in several wide areas at all. She couldn't feel a single bruise, not even the smallest area of soreness, pain, tension, it was the same feeling she gets whenever Anoel works the tension out of her wings.

Only, this spanned across her entire body. Her…completely healthy, non-injured body.

"Relax, we had someone come in and heal you."

Her sister's voice brought her out of her daze, hands pushing into the mattress beneath her to pushed herself into a sitting position.

"Someone…did?" Arex asked meekly, her mind rushing to who would've been available to do that, or who was capable of healing someone so thoroughly.

It was drastically effective, and at the moment…she couldn't feel anything off. Nothing at all.

Looking back, she saw Anoel still leaning against the backrest of her bed. Her hat was tipped up, pushed slightly above her forehead and just resting there. Her gaze was on Arex, a relieved one, but that emotion slowly began to pass as Arex looked around.

More specifically, she checked the time, her body beneath the covers just to double-check, and who else was in the room.

Yellow eyes quickly turned bright orange when they connected with a pair of golden-orange irises close by. They, along with the white fox ears atop the other girl's head, perked up as soon as Arex looked her way.

Those very same shining irises soon flicked to Arex's back, where she felt a cool, stretched, relaxed feeling in her…free…wings…

"K-Kitsuki?" Arex asked hesitantly, slowly following the kitsune's gaze, only confirming the fact that, what should've been kept from her, was suddenly on show for the whole room to see.

Kitsuki brought her bright eyes back to Arex's as she crossed her arms, one fox ear flicking momentarily as her tails flicked back and forth.

She was giving Arex an almost… expectant look, with a slight furrow of her cute brows and a stern, adorable gaze.

"Oh, right…" Arex sighed, shaking out an apprehensive breath as she lightly reached around and gently pulled one of her draped wings into her grasp, "About this…"

From beneath the crumpled blankets, she pulled a thin, sleek, elegant expanse of beautifully black feathers. Slowly, carefully, she brought her appendage around and furled up its tip slightly, wrapping it around her front before resting most of it in her lap.

"I try to keep them wrapped around my torso whenever I can, but I guess I couldn't keep them hidden from you forever…could I…?" Arex asked, furling and unfurling her wings as she ran her fingers across the sensitive feathers in her hands.

Kitsuki shook her head, lightly tossing her long hair around before giving another flick of the ear, her eyes tracing the wing Arex was showing to her.

"It would've only been a matter of time," Anoel said, giving Arex's other wing a soft graze of her fingers. The gentle touch shot a shiver up Arex's spine, but the avian faunus tried to stifle her reaction as best she could.

With Kitsuki's eyes so closely watching her, it would've taken someone who was blind not to catch it immediately.

" _Are they sensitive?"_ Kitsuki asked, watching as Anoel felt around Arex's right wing, the appendage twitching mildly beneath each touch.

The girl visibly doing the same, to some extent.

"Y-yes, when out of c-combat," Arex tried to furl up her wing, attempting to pull it from her sister's reach. But the info-broker stopped its retreat with ease, stretching it back out beneath the covers as she kept playing with Arex's soft feathers.

" _And in combat?"_ Kitsuki continued, inching a little closer to Arex as the kitsune placed her hands against the mattress, curious…and clearly intrigued.

"T-they tense up," Arex shakily said, closing her eyes as her wing was getting cared to. Anoel had a reoccurring and embarrassing habit of massaging Arex's wings, something the younger girl was both fond of… and incredibly ashamed of.

It was too embarrassing not to be, considering what blissful and heated vulnerable state it lulls her into each time.

"You know, if you close your eyes like that, you can't exactly talk to Kitsuki, now can you," Anoel commented with a cheeky grin, poking a little fun at Arex for now.

Now that she was awake, any danger was gone, along with her worries.

Arex's eyes snapped back open as her cheeks flushed, turning back to Kitsuki's face just to see the passing traces of amusement rushing across it.

She was enjoying this…wasn't she…?

Kitsuki soon donned a sweet smile as she leaned forward in interest, her head tilting ever so slightly, _"How tense do they get?"_

She was leading this to something Arex didn't like, especially since she so half-heartedly asked this lead-up question. She knew what would follow it.

"A-armor, basically," Arex replied, incapable of actually escaping the girl's inquiries anyway as she continued in baited embarrassment, "Lightweight, t-thin, versatile a-armor. They're d-durable against almost all manners of attack… m-my body isn't, unfortunately."

"That much has been proven today," Anoel supplied, gently searching for Arex's more sensitive areas while keeping the wing from curling in on itself, "So, try not to be so reckless next time."

It wasn't like Arex _wasn't_ trying…

The girl on display nodded her head anyway, heeding her sister's words as she looked back to Kitsuki. The kitsune had another question, it seemed, since she was eager to start signing it out as soon as she had Arex's attention again.

" _How sensitive do they get?"_

And _that_ was what Arex was trying to avoid.

"T-they're n-not that sensitive, r-really," Arex responded, visibly shuddering after Anoel found one of the places she was looking for.

"Really now? It's not nice to lie, Arex," Anoel instigated amusingly, attending to the one specific area of feathers as she massaged the wing beneath her fingertips.

Arex let out a hot breath, shaking it out of her lungs with an equally shaky shudder as her cheeks flared red, "I-I'm not-"

Anoel added a little heat to her caress, changing Arex's response into a stifled gasp as the girl bit down on her lower lip.

"Is that so?" Anoel asked, her voice reaching a new level of unadulterated amusement as she continued her ministrations, "I guess I can start working a little more thoroughly, then, if they aren't that sensitive."

Arex's eyes went wide as more heat was applied, followed quickly by several more octaves of pressure and _countless_ waves of soothing shivers and blissful rapture rushing through her body.

The girl's legs were growing restless, moving beneath the covers as Arex clutched her other wing to her chest.

"T-they're really sensitive, alright!" she cried out, stifling what would've been a more sensual gasp with a bite of her lip.

Burning orange eyes snapped closed as Arex's cheeks dipped further into the red, Anoel slowing her actions back down as soon as she got her desired answer.

"There, see? Honesty is a good trait to have, so keep that in mind," the info-broker said, a happy, devious smile gracing her lips as her irises shined gold.

Before Arex could close her eyes any tighter, she felt a small tug on her left arm. In slow reluctance, she cracked her eyes open to glance to her side, catching Kitsuki's apologetic smile.

" _I'm sorry, it was just too amusing not to play along,"_ she signed out, scooting a little closer, startling the avian faunus for a moment before Kitsuki continued, _"May I…?"_

She gently reached for the wing in Arex's grasp, stopping just short of it to wait for the permission of the girl it belonged to.

Arex silently stared at Kitsuki's delicate hands, gently hovering near the expanse of her wing… She's only ever felt Anoel feel her feathers before, never anyone…else. She's always been careful about that.

" _I'll be gentle, even moreso than I am with my own tails, and in exchange,"_ Kitsuki began to sign again, catching Arex's eyes for a moment before they caught the subtle movements of something white.

Her eyes widened as she watched Kitsuki reach her bundle of three tails around, bringing them past her side as she readjusted her sitting position. She faced Arex now as she sat back down, letting Arex's eyes watch her carefully as she let her tails rest themselves on Arex's lap.

" _I'll let you return the favor,"_ the kitsune finished, offering something of equal value to the girl before her.

Arex didn't know what to say, let alone what to do. She was at a standstill with her emotions. Ever since she saw them, she'd always wanted to touch them…but she knew how much trust needed to be built up first before such an interaction would ever take place.

And on top of that, she knew how rude it was to ask a faunus if they'd allow someone to touch their faunus appendages.

She knew firsthand how degrading it usual feels to be asked something like that.

But to be offered the pleasantry? It was a huge deal for any faunus to do.

"I'd-" Arex began to say, slowly turning her head away, "I'd never ask that of you. I know how personal we can be with them, so you don't have to do this…"

She felt that soft tug on her arm again and she wordlessly looked back, finding Kitsuki giving her an honest, albeit slightly embarrassed, nod.

" _I want to, if it's alright with you as well,"_ Kitsuki signed, brushing a stray strand of hair behind her ear as her fox ears stood tall, waiting for an answer.

Arex wasn't used to this kind of behavior…from anyone, really. Her eyes turned to her sister, but the slightly older girl only shook her head with a smile.

"It's your decision, Arex," she then brushed her fingers down the expanse of Arex's flat wing, "Besides, I'm allowed to do this because we're sisters."

The action shot another shiver up Arex's wing, but she shakily glanced back to Kitsuki and regarded her out of the side of her vision, dipping her chin now.

Slowly, the wing in her grasp began to move, unfurling itself from her fingers as its eight feet of sleek, black feathers rolled flatly out across the covers in front of Kitsuki. The tip of it dangled off the side of the bed, but the action made Arex's decision clear.

"J-just…be as gentle as you would…with your tails." Arex spoke quietly, fingers clutching at the blanket now as she took in a few breaths.

She knew she had to be in return. Arex would never be anything but gentle…with an offer like this.

* * *

I stopped in the hallway, dipping my hat ever so slightly as I sensed something several floors above me. I just entered the dormitory building, the stairs merely five feet away, but even _I_ realized something as soon as I sensed it.

I'm the kind of guy to disregard anything. Hell, I mean that literally.

Put me in a war zone and I'll take it like an evening stroll. Throw me into a strip club and I'll walk out after finishing whatever mission you sent me on.

But this?

Fuck that.

I'm out.

I turned around and left the way I came. Arex was awake, no wounds sensed, that was the end of it. I was _not_ walking into _that_.

The doors slammed shut behind me as I found something else to do.

* * *

Several minutes have passed now. Arex wasn't sure, really. She had no idea how much time had passed since they started, she just knew she was very close to the edge of heaven. Both of her wings were happily getting attended to.

They've been like that for over half-an-hour now, just doing that.

Kitsuki was, surprisingly, which she admitted to after a little while, obsessed with soft things. She adored anything soft or fluffy to the touch, which was part of the reason why she wanted to feel Arex's feathers.

She _very_ quickly got carried away, though. Arex didn't mind that.

In return, she realized she was touching the softest material she's ever come into contact with in her entire life.

Nothing was softer than those tails… Nothing…

Arex got carried away too, to her embarrassment.

Something so soft should've been illegal, considering its mesmerizing properties and meditative effects upon physical contact.

However, Arex's temporary heaven of bliss stopped just short of a miracle as a knock sounded from the door.

"Hmm, I recognize that heat signature," Anoel commented, sliding herself from the bed as Arex quickly pulled at the blanket in front of her.

As soon as Anoel got up, she quickly slipped her wing back into the slit of her sweater and soon, as soon as Kitsuki reluctantly let go of her other one, did the same with that one and its designated slit.

Both wings wrapped tightly around her lithe body in a familiar embrace, layering together so thinly it was as if they were never there to begin with.

The two girls on the bed turned to the door as Anoel opened it, letting it swing to the doorstop as the info-broker tipped her hat to the one in the hallway.

"Oh, this is quite the surprise," Anoel said, "After what happened in the hallway, I'm a little confused why you're still keen to say hi, especially with what happened to your leader."

"O-Oh… Such a thing shouldn't be thought of too much. I admit, I was a bit surprised...and, well, irritated that someone had attacked him… But it was minor at best. So there's no cause for concern. All is well."

"I'm sure Niro had his reasons, he's usually quite calm," Anoel replied with a smile, stepping aside and gesturing into the room, "I guess it's fairly obvious, but would you two like to come inside?"

"Oh, yes. After all, the purpose of this visit is to introduce ourselves to you all."

"And say hello," another voice added.

Arex finally caught a glimpse of who her sister was talking to. She was another fox-yōkai, like Kitsuki, only her white hair was shoulder length instead of reaching her lower back. Arex noticed the girl had crimson eyes, contrasting with the white fur of her ears and singular tail.

The new kitsune wore a sleeveless, black collared, white shirt. Its zipper was only closed up to the center of her chest, showing off what looked like a form fitting, skin tight black compression shirt beneath it.

Tight black, elbow-reaching sleeves were slipped over her arms. Their material was the same as whatever undershirt the girl wore, and they were easily as skin tight as well.

All of that fit comfortably beneath detached, wide sleeves she also slipped over her arms and adjusted to firmly stay in place. The looser, outer layer was white, compared to the black clothing beneath, with black trim.

Arex already knew this team loved that color scheme, but she guessed it was justified… considering the contrast brought out the figure of the one wearing it all.

A black sash was tightly wrapped around the kitsune's waist, its ends dangling freely from her right side. Beneath all of that was a black, pleated skirt, reaching the center of her thighs. Wavy white patterns spanned across the black fabric, meeting with white trim along the skirt's ends.

White, thigh-high stockings adorned her beautifully lithe legs, black bands connecting its ends to a few inches below the hem of her skirt. And as Arex's eyes wandered further down, she noticed white shoes, laced together in black laces and complimented with black soles.

She didn't want to, but she found it difficult to look away, especially as Anoel led the girl and the guy next to her inside before closing the door behind them. The guy, she recognized. He was a hard person to forget…

Especially since Niro had an incredibly violent interaction with him just yesterday.

"I'll be the first to say it," Anoel said, slipping around the two new arrivals as she made her way over to the desk between the sets of beds, leaning against it, "I'm sorry for what Niro did. It was… admittedly out of character for him, but I can see a few reasons why he'd go so far to test you."

"It's no problem really," he replied with a smile, waving his hand a bit, "I was a little surprised when it happened. In all honesty, I still don't know what I did to upset him. I didn't even say much and was trying to be nice and all."

"I don't think it had anything to do with what you said, to be honest," Anoel replied, "If I were to guess, it was probably something that wasn't as shallow as that minor interaction. I've known Niro for the better part of both our lives, I know his tendencies as much as he does."

"Oh… Well, maybe you could tell me what then so it doesn't happen again? Maybe?"

Anoel shrugged her shoulders, "I can't say for sure, not unless you want to ask him yourself."

"I have a feeling he'd try again if I did… But anyway, no need to apologize. Bygones be bygones and all."

"I'd still be cautious, especially since you basically stood up to his challenge, which only made matters worse," Anoel responded, taking a glance to Kitsuki and Arex on their connected beds, "Oh, and before we get too far with anything. Arex, Kitsuki, meet Inuba Kitsukami and Dante."

The fact that Anoel didn't bring up Dante's last name felt a little unnerving for Arex, considering titles were basically second nature to the info-broker. They were on the long list of things she finds out in the first few seconds of interaction.

"Good morning everyone." Inuba gave the two a polite bow.

"Hello," Dante greeted as well.

Dante suddenly let out a dramatic gasp as soon as Arex watched his eyes fall on Kitsuki beside her. The small girl flinched slightly, tails immediately swirling around her waist as she stared in confusion.

"It's… nice to meet you," Arex replied, glancing between Dante and Kitsuki for a few moments as she noticed her partner begin to shrink away from the attention.

"Ah, sorry," he began as he cleared his throat and stood up straight, "You don't see many Kitsune around. Especially one as adorable as her."

Kitsuki's cheeks were starting to flush red now, her face disappearing behind white fur as Arex watched the girl hide behind her fluffy tails.

"I completely agree, though, this one's rather shy," Anoel stepped in, drawing Arex's gaze back to her sister as the older girl gave a small, dismissive wave, "I could say the same thing about your own partner, but since we both have a kitsune… I feel it's rather unnecessary to state the obvious."

 _Cute is an understatement…_ Arex controlled her mind as best she could, but she was surprised she was even engaged in any comprehensive conversation right now at all. Thoughts, let alone words, were difficult at the moment.

Both of them, Kitsuki and Inuba, were beyond descriptive words.

"True enough…" he said as Inuba's ears folded against her head, "but sorry. I'm a little bit biased towards my partner." He finished speaking to Kitsuki in an apologetic manner.

Arex noticed Inuba's ears perk up again as soon as Dante stopped speaking, her tail flicking back and forth now behind her.

"As am I for mine," Arex responded in place of Kitsuki, giving the girl's head a soft pat, "You don't need to apologize for something like that." The pat caused Kitsuki's ears to bounce for a moment, along with a momentary, hidden, lull of her tongue.

"And here I thought only Niro and Dante would be at odds with each other," Anoel sighed, brushing the tip of her hat with her fingers before glancing back to the duo before her, "I know that smell isn't your perfume, so what'd you bring with you?"

"We bring gifts to satisfy your possibly hungry stomachs! Inuba made them this time since she's better at cooking than I am."

"C-Come now… It's nothing all too special…" Inuba muttered, her tail noticeably speeding up its movements.

"Baked goods?" Arex asked, taking her hand from a quickly disheartened Kitsuki's head as she turned her attention back to Inuba and Dante, "How good are they?"

"How…" Dante paused a moment, "How good are they…? They...are the very best in the entire world!"

His dramatics were emphasized as he pointed to the ceiling.

"Well, I'm always interested in trying good food," Arex replied, ignoring Dante's seemingly blatant attempts to send every compliment possible his partner's way, "As for my partner…"

Arex leaned forward and glanced behind the fur of Kitsuki's tails, catching a tiny nod from her partner behind them a moment later.

"She's interested too."

They didn't all notice, but Dante had looked to Kitsuki for a moment, his sclera changing to black and his bright sky blue irises a glowing white for only a second or two before they transitioned back to his normal eyes. He then touched his own throat and grimaced slightly, his glance turning sorrowful for a moment.

The actions didn't go unnoticed by either sister, but Arex quickly guessed what he just found out. Kitsuki was still hidden behind her tails, so she had no idea. But the other two on the team had known for a while now… they just didn't know what tipped him off about it.

Kitsuki was playing the shy card perfectly.

"Um…" Dante started, trying to get Kitsuki's attention.

The girl in question slowly lowered the tips of her fox tails, glancing over the expanse of fur in her grasp toward the source of the voice directed toward her.

He then unexpectedly signed out, _"Do you like baked goods?"_

Kitsuki was startled slightly, but she watched his hands flash through the symbols with fluid ease. She didn't know what to think about that, let alone how quickly he found out about her lack of voice, but she slowly slipped her own fingers from the confines of her fur and responded.

" _It usually depends on what it is."_

" _Well, what's your favorite then? We baked a lot of different things, so we might have it."_

Kitsuki was still taken aback, but she continued anyway, _"I'm afraid that's impossible. Someone… used to make it for me. It was a family recipe."_

" _Well, if you remember what was in it, much less remember the taste and such, we could try to make it for you someday if you'd like,"_ he offered kindly, something she wasn't expecting.

" _That's kind of you, but,"_ she wanted to leave it as just that.

A memory.

" _I'd be fine with something else,"_ Kitsuki continued.

Again he flashed a quick sorrowful glance, but immediately smiled after.

" _That's alright then. We hope you like the goods we made instead."_

Inuba brought around a basket she'd been holding at her side, the sheer size of it causing Arex to question why she didn't immediately notice it earlier. Though, as soon as she questioned herself about that, she realized she was busy staring at other things.

The basket was rather large, filled to the brim with wrapped goods and individually wrapped slices of varying cakes. When they said they brought a variety of goods…

They weren't kidding.

Were they always this prepared?

"I have to ask, what kind of icing did you use for your carrot cake?" Arex asked, spotting one of several cakes in the mix.

"Cream cheese," Inuba responded, picking out the cake in question.

"Good," Arex hummed, giving a small nod, "that's always the best choice anyway. In my opinion."

Anoel leaned over for a moment, searching through the variety of goods before spotting something she found herself suddenly craving. She reached in and pulled out a small peanut butter trifle parfait cup, paired with its own plastic spoon and wrapping.

"You know, you didn't have to go through all this effort just to introduce yourselves," she pointed out, carefully unwrapping her serving and poking around with her spoon.

She'd peg them for ulterior motives, but at this point, their reasoning could be anything. Even something as innocent as a better first impression.

"We just kinda wanted to make a good first impression is all. That, and...well...hopefully you wouldn't get the wrong idea of us by some chance. But also as a sort of apology just in case. Speaking of which… He isn't here… Of course…" Dante responded.

"I think it's probably better that way, for the time being," Arex commented, crawling her way across the beds to accept the plate of carrot cake Inuba handed her.

Inuba then brought the basket closer to Kitsuki and set it down in front of the girl, letting her decide on what she'd choose to pull out.

After a few moments, Kitsuki finally set her tails aside and glanced into the basket, sifting through it with her own eyes before finding something she liked. She withdrew a small cheesecake, plain but with a topping of whipped cream.

No wonder… considering both of which could be described as fluffy.

"And for you?" asked Inuba as she turned to Dante with her basket.

"Hmmm…" he hummed as he looked inside, "Aha! There you are!"

He reached in and grabbed a rectangular maple flavored doughnut, going at it just as quickly as he grabbed it.

"He must really like your baking," Arex said, watching the doughnut disappear from Dante's hand.

She was actually looking forward to this, considering she liked learning new things from trying anything made from people of higher skill than herself. Lately, those people have been few and far between, considering everything she learned advanced her own skills.

Adapting had always been her specialty.

If her hopes were still high, she'd probably get even better with her own baking if Inuba happened to be a better baker than she was. Though, Arex was getting increasingly more bored with how few people she's discovered that happened to achieve that level of baking…

She hoped Inuba was different.

"To be honest, he only ever eats when I make something. Other than that, he really doesn't eat all that much. He said my cooking and baking was just absolutely heaven-like and…" she paused for a moment, as if she were trying to understand the meaning herself behind her next words, "he says everything else doesn't taste all too well for him. As if it's bland...or rather...it didn't even have a taste…"

Arex unwrapped her carrot cake, taking Inuba's words in as she did so, "To each their own, I guess. I'd bake something to challenge that theory, but with a bar already set so high, I don't think it'd matter."

"Nonsense. I assume you are as skilled or better."

"An assumption like that is difficult if you don't know where my baking skills lie," Arex replied, "Or if I have any to begin with."

"She's being modest," Anoel interjected, catching a small glare from her little sister in return, "Arex owns the best bakery in town. Just ask the locals."

"We'll have to visit sometime then. Right?" Inuba asked, looking to Dante.

"Right, of course," he said before devouring another maple doughnut.

"It's closed right now, considering I'm the one who runs it," Arex informed, but she slowly drew in her legs and placed her plate on the bed before her, "Besides, I didn't want to talk it up in the first place…"

"It's the life essence to most of the locals," Anoel commented again, already halfway through the cup of delectable trifle in her hands, "They were pretty disheartened when they heard it'd be closed for a while. Most of them even complained there wasn't any other place they could go with the same quality, let alone the pricing along with it."

Anoel happily smiled, taking another bite of her treat as Arex stared at her, glare slowly forming behind her disbelief.

"Really now? Well, if they think that, then we definitely have to go over once you open it back up. Call us over when you do," Dante said.

"I… might," Arex replied in mild consideration, but it wasn't something she avidly ever strived for. Advertising was always one of her weaknesses, and quite frankly, she hated doing it.

Her sister, on the other hand… Arex didn't even know where to _start_ with her…

Anoel was the only reason why her bakery became so widely known. Its main front wasn't even supposed to be just a bakery either, it doubled as both a forge and her home.

"If you don't mind us asking, from which parts do all of you hail from?" Inuba asked, pulling out a blueberry muffin for herself.

"Arex and I are from just outside of Vale, Kitsuki from Mistral," Anoel took the liberty of answering, keeping the specifics out of the equation. She neglected to mention the origins of Niro as well, keeping that unsaid for now, "Judging by your last name, I'd assume you're all part of the Kitsukami Estate in the north-eastern mountain range nearby."

"Oh?" started Dante quizzically, "So you know a bit about us then?"

"More or less," Anoel replied cheekily, enjoying her treats.

"Still though...how much do you know?" he asked with a coy smile.

"That depends." Anoel took another small spoonful up and ate it, "How long do you plan to stay here?"

"Well… For a long, long time from what it looks like…" replied Dante, resting his chin in his hand.

"I was referring to this room, not your banishment," Anoel replied with a grin, wondering how much she could hint at before leaving the rest for herself.

Inuba jumped slightly when she heard Anoel say that, Arex and Kitsuki looking in confusion in the same moment. Dante dropped his smile, only leveling a stare at Anoel in its place.

"Now how would you know about that?" His tone lost its carefreeness, bordering on a new level of seriousness he apparently rarely ever turned to.

"Because there isn't a soul on this planet that can withstand a single punch from my partner," Anoel replied evenly, stirring the remains of her dessert around, "You may not know this, but you stick out like a blot of black on a white canvas. And if anyone had any aura sense to them, they'd easily pick you out of a crowd for how unique it seems to be."

Anoel finished off her treat, setting the empty cup aside as she crossed one ankle over the other.

"It also helps that you're not human."

Inuba seemed to be ready to move, but glanced at Dante worriedly for a moment. He only kept his eyes trained on Anoel, studying her carefully and calmly.

"If you're worried about anyone finding out about this, you need to only look as far as Niro to get your answer," Anoel continued, crossing her arms beneath her chest as she lowered her hat at them, "He couldn't care less about the matter, and neither do I."

Dante continued staring for a few more seconds before he closed his eyes, chuckling to himself before opening them again.

"How interesting… You could tell as many people as you'd want, it wouldn't make a difference to me at all. The only reason she was concerned was because of our previous 'affiliations'. As for your partner...well… I'll admit he managed to give me quite the tickle…"

"If it hurt you, he'd probably be disappointed, considering he held back quite a bit," Anoel stated dismissively.

"Why do you think I said tickled? He didn't do that much with his punch."

"It doesn't matter much, he usually just does what he wants anyway," Anoel replied, looking up for a moment with a tilted gaze. She's never seen the day where Niro put his full strength toward anything, she just knew she never wanted to be around when that day happened, "In any case, I suppose some of your other secrets are more sensitive than that one, really."

"Not really. I'd tell you if you ask, considering I'm not bound by any restrictions anymore."

"Like I said before, I couldn't care less about it," Anoel restated, bringing her gaze back down to Dante's own, "Though, your willingness to prove its pointlessness is admirable."

"Well, I wouldn't say pointless. Like I said, not bound by any rules anymore. Well, except for the rules here at Beacon that is."

"You've already broken one of them by fighting in the hallway," Anoel pointed out, another cheshire grin flashing across her lips.

"Fighting you say? I wasn't aware that we were fighting... Horsing around would be the more accurate term if anything."

"I don't think horsing around sends what's widely recognized as a gunshot down the hallway of this dormitory," Anoel replied, but she soon tilted her head and dismissed that thought, "But that's what the general public thinks. I'm not talking in regards to what you or I think. There's a reason why there's a term for public opinion or a general audience. They don't know the specifics."

"True enough I suppose. So then...if I'm not human...what exactly might I be?" he asked with interest.

"It takes more than just looking at you to figure that one out," Anoel stated, turning her gaze away now as she glanced to Kitsuki and Arex on the bed.

They were both long since finished with their own desserts by now.

"It's something I'll need to do a little digging for, if it's an answer you actually seek," she finished.

Dante chuckled once more before he broke out laughing for a short bit.

"I like her," he commented to Inuba before turning back to Anoel, "If you do find out, please, do tell me."

Anoel hummed, tapping her chin for a few moments before shrugging, "That depends how much you're willing to pay me for information that valuable."

"Oh?" he smiled, "What's your price then?"

"Depends on the information, but it can either be money… or something else," Anoel explained, giving Dante a final cheeky smile, "sometimes favors, sometimes other services."

"Hmm… Favors or services you say… Such as?" he asked with an equally cheeky smile.

"It's determined upon the transaction of the information, so I can't say," she replied teasingly.

"But it can be anything, right?"

"Only if I think it's worth the effort of obtaining the information."

"Well, if you do find out, I will promise to make it worth your while."

Anoel nodded, tilting her head again as she hummed, "You can try. Very few men can satisfy me."

"Lucky for you...I'm not like other men."

"I'll be the judge of that," Anoel smiled.

Both she and Dante glanced at Inuba, whose face had turned completely red throughout the exchange. Interestingly enough, it almost seemed as though her head was smoking as she muttered silently to herself.

"Oh…" Anoel laughed, staring at the girl for a few moments, "I think we broke her."

"Uh-oh. Hold on, I've got just the thing."

He then reached out and gently pinched the tips of Inuba's fox ears, playfully spreading them apart back and forth.

His voice grew into a subtle whisper as he tried for her attention, "Hello in there! Wakey wakey!"

Inuba snapped out of her heated stupor immediately, eyes refocusing to Dante's own irises in front of her before her cheeks flushed further into the red. A silent squeal almost escaped her lips, if she didn't stifle it last minute.

"You alright there?" he asked, chuckling as he let go.

Before Inuba could answer, both Dante's attention and Anoel's turned to the door. The presence of two others lingering behind it.

"I don't suppose those two are here for the two of you?" Anoel asked, leaning away from her desk and glancing past Dante and Inuba.

"Guess so…"

"Alright! Come out with your hands up, and we might not just try to tickle you to death!"

"You didn't even read me rights. And assaulting me by tickling? You'd make a terrible officer Ciel," Dante replied.

There was a silence behind the door for a few moments.

"No! You would!" the voice responded.

"Yeah yeah yeah…"

"She sounds adorable," Anoel noted, before gesturing toward the door, "Looks like you need to go, though."

"Apparently. Well, thanks for having us then. Let's do this again sometime. It was fun."

"Maybe, it'd depend on Niro being here or not," Anoel pointed out, "He's the only factor at the moment. I'd rather not have you and him in the same room."

"Not yet anyway… Well, goodbye for now. We hope to work well with you all and such in the future," he said, extending a hand to Anoel.

"Keep bringing treats, and we'll see about that," Anoel took Dante's hand with her own.

"Oh~ So that's how…"

"It's a little more advanced than that, honey, but you're close," Anoel smiled, before letting his hand go and nodding to the door.

Which, at the moment, was suffering a beating at the hands of a young, restless, needy girl.

"I know it's not through direct contact or anything, but I know enough now to the point I've got it nearly figured out entirely. You're not the only person who can read people extensively you know…"

"I never said I was," Anoel replied quietly.

He then opened the door and moved out of the way, Ciel nearly falling in and only stopping just short of the ground as her older brother caught her by the waist.

The girl had a little cat-like grin, contentedly dangling in her brother's grasp as he walked out of the room, her small feet dangling limply off the ground.

"One last thing," he paused, glancing back into the room, "I was serious about before you know. Before I came here, I was told I would eventually find out the actual truth as to who I really am. That I'd find the missing pieces I've been hunting for years now. If you do find anything...anything at all...I will promise to make it worth your while."

"You can try," Anoel waved the teen goodbye, watching as a distracted Inuba found her way into the hallway as well, "Oh, and Inuba honey, I have some extra panties if you need any. But, I'm sure you can find a dry pair quickly enough considering your dorm's right there."

Anoel let out one more teasing smile before Dante closed the door, Inuba smoking from all four ears with an adorably shocked gasp just before the door clicked shut.

Then they were gone.

"I see why Niro hates him…"

* * *

 **Inuba is the final member of the neighboring team I've introduced, also owned by andy. Who, again, helped with keeping all his characters in line by writing responses for the dialogue of this chapter.**

 **I'll be getting back to my antics now that introductions are out of the way. Besides, I have other characters I want to turn to now.**

 **I wonder… how blurred can I make the line between cute and sexual…**

 **Part of me wonders if it's pushed too far, but then I realize Anoel adores Arex's reactions.**

 **For now,** _ **Favorite**_ **and** _ **Follow**_ **.**

 **I look forward to seeing** _ **REVIEWS**_ **for this. You'll be introduced to a LOT of concepts of mine. Feel free to give me your thoughts.**

 **Cya XP**


	17. Messages

Rogue Huntsman

Messages

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Ozpin's a self-centered fool who can't see past the silvered end of his short, scrawny cane. Tapping it here and there, twirling it and twisting it, yet not a morsel of strength was ever needed in its entire expenditure of time wasted beneath his grasp.

Only a fool would think his cane was made for walking.

What's worse, he gave the entire student body the rest of the week off to _heal_ and _recover_ from today's intense and 'well-defended' siege.

You call that intense?

Give me a bag of rocks and I'll show you intense.

Throw in a paperclip while you're at it.

It was a lizard banging its heads against a metal cup. Hell, even my teammate, _alone_ , nearly killed it in its enraged mode I kicked it into.

No, instead some hungover brat in a beanie took it upon himself to shield every last idiot from the lizard's warm spit. Even the asshole took part, white hair a blinding blur in the sunlight as he saved the rest from harm.

He picked a couple twigs from the shoreline before the soft waves of a splashing pond could touch them.

What a hero.

Shields were crushed and shattered, Dante was nearly squashed and killed, unfortunately the asshole still lives and both his legs remain unbroken. And, oh yeah, he and his partner put on a little lightshow at the end of it. White flames… the Aether energy in those flickering trails of pale fire was potent.

Stupidly so, as if her perfectness went so ungodly far it surpassed her creator's image of the one and only perfect waifu.

She and Kitsuki should never be in the same room together.

Arex would die.

It was no wonder the white duo would be the ones to finish off the Hydra either, with a flashy final move no less. Flashy being the keyword there, considering that was all it had going for it.

A young, tiny wolf faunus could do better than those two combined.

Puny little 'hmph' machines… always digging into the applesauce containers.

I flicked a toothpick into the rushing winds, the small splinter of wood cutting through air pockets and currents in a dispersion of severed lines. The small projectile punctured the left eye of a baby nevermore in the distant clouds.

Engines roared around me, sputtering and burning consistent fuel along measured segments of the massive wings to my left and right. My hat remained stiffly against my head, pushed down by the wind, while my back pressed into the cold, metal surface beneath me.

I couldn't get myself to care for the vessel's passengers. There were students and families alike, all riding in the iron, airborne brick I lied upon. No… they didn't matter.

I just took it upon myself to fire the toothpicks I stole from inside the Airship at anything I could to settle my boredom.

There was no way in hell I was staying at Beacon Academy if I _didn't even have classes._ I was heading back to Vale, lazily hitching a ride I didn't need to pay for. I didn't need to grovel like the rest and claim myself to be a student, flashing my ID for free lifts and overreaching privileges.

Nothing could ever get me to utter such degrading words.

Three more toothpicks were discarded, striking down three more small birds before they could eventually grow into the nightmares society has so much trouble bringing down today.

They were armored tanks with wings, if you saw it from their eyes.

A soft ring suddenly sputtered to life in my pocket, forcing whatever part of me that cared to read the message waiting in the notifications of my scroll.

It was from Anoel.

' _Running off so soon?'_

It was hardly out of character for me…

I turned my scroll and opened the encrypted messaging software Arex designed for our team, pulling up the digital keyboard there, _'No point in staying until classes start back up.'_

Her response was unsurprisingly quick, _'Not even to sleep with me?'_

' _We need money.'_ I replied.

' _No we don't. You just don't want me to cuddle with you in your sleep.'_

' _I don't sleep as much as you do.'_ I responded evenly, tapping through the letters as the wind tore itself across my clothes, _'Besides, I'm too cold to be worth the effort.'_

' _You're warmer than you think you are~'_

' _You're hotter than any man can care to hold.'_ I ignored the heart she sent after the end of her message, responding in kind to her useless efforts to tease me.

' _Awww, you think I'm hot? O/ / /O'_

' _Hot enough to burn any man who touches you.'_

' _Except you~'_

' _Exceptions are the same as outcasts, we're too different to stuff into the same categories as the rest of them.'_

The responses stopped for a while and I was left staring at my screen for a few moments. A small cry of a newborn avian grimm fluttered through the air along with the flaps of its little wings.

One more toothpick discarded.

She responded as soon as it dropped out of the air.

' _Guess who visited today?'_

Don't even get me started with that, Ano, _'Two ankle biters, a sexualized fox, and that thing that's been stealing my oxygen.'_

' _Gasp, how'd you know?!'_

She didn't need to type out gasp… _'His energy's so potent I can smell the pungent odor from here.'_

' _Well, we have a bunch of goodies to go through now. Too bad you're not here to share it with.'_

' _Check for poison.'_

' _Already did.'_

' _Throw it out anyway.'_

' _No way. It's all fresh and tasty.'_

They probably had ulterior motives of some sort, _'How did you convince Skyla to heal Arex?'_

' _Oh, you knew about that?'_

' _You knew that I knew about it.'_

' _A girl can act caught off guard, you know. I just asked her for a favor.'_

' _And you think being in her debt is a good idea?'_

' _I was worried, okay?'_

' _Arex was fine.'_

' _Thanks to you, she was.'_

I stopped for a moment, going through whatever thoughts I had in reserve before responding, _'I played no part in that.'_

' _There was an instant in time where you were nowhere to be found across the entirety of Beacon's campus. Coincidently, it was the same moment Arex took that heavy hit from the Hydra's hard heads.'_

' _I sneezed. My existence forgets itself sometimes when I do that.'_

' _Are you getting sick?'_

' _No, I snorted pepper because I was bored.'_

' _Niro, you saved my little sister. Please stop denying it.'_

I paused again, mulling those words over, _'No, I sneezed.'_

It took a minute and a half, but she eventually responded again.

' _Thank you.'_ She knew I wouldn't reply to that, so she sent a follow-up message, _'I miss you.'_

' _You can relax now that I'm gone. Grimm won't be attacking the school much until I get back to attract them.'_ Missing someone is only ever an illusion of an emotion. You just get so used to something else being a part of your life. Once it's taken out of it… you crave its return.

' _You should come back. Arex and Kitsuki are getting along so cutely, you need to see it.'_

' _I'll take your word for it.'_

' _Aww, you should see Arex's face right now! Kitsuki's playing with her wings again. The poor girl can't say no to the adorable kitsune, even if she wanted to.'_

' _You manipulated them into getting close, didn't you?'_

' _Actually, I didn't do as much as you think I did. Kitsuki's been surprisingly forward and friendly with Arex. Do you think she reminds her of someone?'_

' _Considering how little we know of her past life, it's a possibility.'_

' _True. But, then again, it could also be that the kitsune's grown fond of my cute little sister. Anyone would. Even you did, Niro.'_

' _She fed me.'_ Considering how much history we had, that was as close to the simplified truth as it got.

' _You don't need to eat, silly. You just liked her culinary skills. You even wanted to learn from her.'_

' _I used her to advance my own ability. You call that a good deed?'_

' _You and I both know how else it can be worded. You grew to respect her. That's a huge deal considering how few people you actually give that much of an honor to.'_

It aggravated me how easy it was for Anoel to dance around conversations, things I preferred to stay out of, _'It stops with you two.'_

' _I'm thinking Kitsuki will eventually make it onto that list.'_ I could sense a sigh escaping her lips, a few seconds ticking by before she followed up her last response with another one, _'Poor girl can't catch a break. The harassments have nearly become daily now.'_

' _She can solve that issue on her own.'_

' _You know how much I hate bullies, Niro.'_

' _Stay out of it.'_ I replied coldly, _'This is her fight. If she can't win, then she doesn't deserve any morsel of my respect.'_

' _I'll give it time, but other people have already started stepping in. This is Beacon you know, not a school of heartless, apprehensive children. It's practically a breeding ground of confidence.'_

' _Strangers are fine, but they'll just get in the way. She needs to eventually learn to do something about it herself.'_

' _She hasn't had a reason to…'_ There was another short pause in the messages, the airship beneath me rocking for a moment as it rolled over an air pocket in the currents, _'There's been this girl from team RWBY who's been helping Kitsuki a lot. Yang Xiao Long, if I remember that name correctly.'_

' _Faunus lover or anger issues?'_

' _A little of both. But, to be honest, I can't help but think she's also in it for Kitsuki herself. The blonde keeps wanting to pet Kitsuki's head ever since team RWBY saw how much the kitsune liked it when Arex did it for a moment in the locker room.'_

' _Arex should've been more careful.'_

' _It was only for a moment. It was Kitsuki that took Arex's hands and placed them back between her ears.'_

If adorableness could kill, I think a thousand men were just slain by that comment alone, _'She needs to learn self-control then. They both do.'_

' _I don't know, I kind of like seeing them together. They're adorable.'_

' _You're just biased because you want to see your little sister with someone who can make her happy again.'_

' _Is it so wrong to think that?'_

The technical answer was no, but it wasn't as simple as that, _'The chemical feeling of happiness comes from the sudden absence of pain. In order to feel happy, which is a pleasure, you need that pain to be satisfied. If this doesn't work out, Arex will feel a pain you'll never wish for her to feel again.'_

' _And if it does work out?'_

Flip a lien coin and you'll get your answer, _'She'll be able to love again, rather than stifle it all in the heat of her heart to keep others from feeling the pain she's felt for years.'_

' _I wish I could've been there for her…'_

' _So did she. You were contracted into a job in a neighboring kingdom. There was nothing you could do.'_

' _She never speaks of it, but I know you were around to help her through that.'_

' _I wouldn't go anywhere near that.'_

' _But you did… and I won't let you deny it either. I know you, and I know what you did for her. What you're still doing for her…'_

The engines were starting to cool down. Their thrusters were beginning to fade, losing the bright glow they all burned with as we approached the city in the distance.

I was landing.

' _You're not a monster, Niro. No matter how many people say it.'_

They have every right to… especially with what I did.

' _See you when I get back.'_ I replied, sitting myself up as the ship began to descend.

' _I'll be waiting.'_

I closed my scroll and pocketed it. There was a long list of jobs I wanted to complete.

* * *

Anoel slowly closed her scroll, the bed cold beneath her bare legs as she tilted her head back against the headrest. The bed next to her was empty… and it wasn't going to change for the next few days, including the weekend.

She was in her pajamas, not wanting to leave her room after she took a shower. It's been about two hours since Dante and Inuba were pulled out of the room by his younger siblings, leaving the basket of baked goods behind.

They were still wrapped, the gift placed atop the desk to her right.

Her eyes were closed as she let her mind drift, letting the day tick by on its own as her responsibilities simplified down to nothing more than sleeping for the rest of the day. Everything else was over and done with.

The Hydra fight immediately after classes was the only eventful endeavor of the day.

Her scroll's clock, the last time she checked, said it was only seven in the afternoon. Nothing else was supposed to happen today. The soft cooing coming from Arex's bed told her those two had no intentions of leaving the room either.

That was until a knock came from the door, gently catching Anoel's straying attention.

She adjusted her hat and slipped herself from her bed, padding across the floor in sock-clad feet as she made her way to the door. She recognized the heat signature, but she didn't have it in her to do anything more than that.

It was someone she knew down the hall, the youngest of four others…

Anoel carefully opened the door and pulled it halfway, keeping Arex and Kitsuki out of view. Not like the two noticed someone was at the door anyway.

"Uh, hey, is this Arex's room?" Ruby asked, the small girl bouncing on the balls of her feet in her casual attire. Which, unsurprisingly, was just her cloak and her usual clothes.

"Do you need her?" Anoel asked, leaning lightly against the door frame with her hand on the door's edge.

"I do, actually," she replied hesitantly, lowering her gaze slightly, "My weapon warped a great deal from the heat of the Hydra. I was…" Ruby paused, looking even further down to eventually find the tops of her boots, "hoping she'd help me fix it."

Anoel hummed softly, swaying the door forward and back as she watched Ruby fidget beneath her gaze. It was kind of adorable seeing how shy the girl was.

"She's pretty tired from taking the Hydra on herself for so long," Anoel replied, wondering if the girl would stop looking at the floor so intently.

"I-I heard about that. Is she alright?" Silver irises peeked back up, peering through asymmetrical bangs dangling beside the cute girl's face.

"Healed and currently getting attended to. She isn't exactly in need of rest right now, so she might be willing to help."

"If she's busy, I can come back at another time!" Ruby quickly offered, shuffling her feet as she met Anoel's eyes again, "R-really, I can try to figure it out on my own for now."

"How bad is it?" Anoel asked out of curiosity.

Ruby tilted her head, almost ashamedly, "It… may have fused several of my internal mechanisms together. And… it _may_ have also misaligned the entire shaft, throwing off my barrel's rifling and jamming the chambering system."

"Ruby," Anoel sighed, giving the girl a cautious gaze, "How close did you get to the Hydra?"

The cloaked girl flinched slightly, shying away from Anoel's gaze again, "C-close enough to try a stab for its heart? I noticed a small puncture wound there, but I couldn't get any bullets through. Even fire-resistant rounds were burning up before getting close."

She noticed where Niro pierced its hide… Anoel quirked a delicate brow to that. Something that small on a target that large should've been invisible, even to the trained eye.

Yet, Ruby spotted it through her scope. She was in the middle of combat as well.

"It was impressive that you found that weakness. But, what made you think your weapon could withstand its heat? Even if bullets couldn't?" Anoel asked in return, watching closely for where Ruby's eyes turned to.

This time, they didn't leave her own.

"I ran the calculations. I had enough fire Dust treated into my weapon that it _should've_ been able to withstand that kind of heat. Bullets are small and already heat themselves up on the way, so I figured Crescent Rose had a pretty good chance of succeeding." Ruby finished her comment with another shuffle of her boot, her smile turning cutely awkward, "It… didn't work out."

Ruby's technical mind was slowly coming out. Whatever years the girl had of weapons and experience beneath her skirt, it was showing. Even if the girl before her was clutching at its swaying hem, "I can see why you'd ask for help with that. It's a lot to do, especially since you have to take your whole weapon apart."

"Yeah…" Ruby responded meekly, admitting to it… without really owning up to it. She seemed to have a knack for that.

"Well, if you can get her attention, feel free to ask her," Anoel gave Ruby a tip of the hat, pushing the door open the rest of the way and letting the room come into view for Ruby to see.

Ruby's silver eyes widened at the sight.

Arex's eyes were lulled closed, her bare legs crossed beneath herself with a pillow clutched to her chest. She had her chin and lips stuffed into it, nose barely pressed into it as well as a red hue lay permanently dusted across her cheeks.

She was in her pajamas. They all were.

Kitsuki sat behind the avian faunus, still finding enjoyment in finding the softest feathers along the expanse of Arex's wings draped over the bed. The sleek black appendages twitched every once in a while, but the girl who owned them remained as still as she could.

"She's been like that for about an hour now, so feel free to-" Anoel turned just in time to hear Ruby gasp, then nearly lose her hat as a burst of air blew past her.

"You have wings?!" Ruby squealed in excitement, luckily only after Anoel closed their dorm room door.

Arex's eyes snapped open to the new voice, those very eyes quickly widening as they brightened in their burning orange irises.

"N-no…" she quietly denied, pulling her lips away from her pillow just enough to speak as two black blurs disappeared into her sweater. Its cloth not even shifting as she wrapped them smoothly back around her torso.

"You do!" Ruby was in awe, hands clasped together as she climbed onto the bed, sitting on her heels in front of Arex, "I saw them."

Arex quickly shook her head, "Y-you saw nothing."

Ruby couldn't stop a small laugh from escaping her throat, "Arex… I didn't know you were a faunus."

Arex was squishing her face back into her pillow, averting her eyes now from the silver irises in front of her. Her cheeks were only getting warmer.

The girl hugged her pillow tighter, muttering into its pillowcase for a few more seconds as Ruby waited for some kind of response. It wasn't until Arex let her eyes fall back to silver orbs and release a heavy sigh that the pillow finally lowered.

"P-people aren't supposed to know," Arex murmured, her voice soft.

Ruby understood that, she really did. But she wasn't one of them. She's never been one and she never will be… she, and her sister, knew all about the troubles the faunus go through.

For the life of her, Ruby couldn't figure out why anyone could hate the faunus. She just knew the world made stupid decisions sometimes for stupid reasons…

This was just one of them.

"Well, you don't have to worry about me. I can keep a secret." Ruby nodded her head, confidence brewing in her young veins.

If only it was that easy.

Kitsuki peered around Arex for now, gently reaching her hands beneath the girl's sweater to pull her wings back out of their slits. Arex's blush only worsened as she felt her partner start to slide the tips of her wings out, the rest slowly following with little resistance.

Ruby's eyes watched this happen in interest, forgetting whatever it was she came here for as Kitsuki laid Arex's wings out again.

"Please, just," Arex took a small breath, trying hard not to sound meek… but failing in every way, "don't tell anyone. I don't want the attention."

Ruby watched Kitsuki's fingers find their way back to Arex's feathers, only giggling a little more at the amusing sight before her, "Really? It looks like you kind of like it."

"N-not…" Arex turned away, her face reddening, " _that_ kind of attention."

"Oh," Ruby quickly assumed the opposite, "the… negative kind."

Arex gave a small nod.

Ruby wouldn't want that kind of attention either.

"Your secret's safe with me," the scythe-wielder whispered, leaning in closer to Arex, "on the grounds that I get to touch them too."

Arex's eyes widened as they shot back to Ruby's, her face burning all the hotter as she stared at the girl in disbelief.

Her too?!

"W-why?" Arex asked, her voice breaking.

"W-well, I've never met someone like you before," Ruby began to say, referring to Arex being an avian faunus, "So, it's my first time seeing them. They look really good on you, by the way."

Arex narrowed her eyes as her cheeks flared. It was an adorable glare, even by Ruby's standards.

The red reaper soon gave Arex an innocent smile, shifting legs beneath her until she was sitting with crossed legs like the one in front of her, "Only when you trust me enough to let me, though."

The final guideline, or rule of sorts, was established. Arex didn't know what to think of all this, let alone how to approach it. Anoel let Ruby in fully knowing her wings were exposed, something she wasn't expecting.

Taking a glance, she noticed Anoel back on her bed. She was on her scroll, but every once in a while she took glances their way. She wasn't sure if it was out of interest or something else.

Was this… on purpose?

"O-okay, but I meant what I said," Arex sighed, turning her gaze back to Ruby, "Don't tell anyone."

Ruby pulled her lips into a thin line and pinched her fingers together, running them across her mouth to metaphorically zip it closed.

"Good," Arex let her guarded gaze down now, or, what was left of it anyway, "Now, why did you stop by? Did you need something?"

"Oh! Right!" Ruby's stature quickly perked up as she remembered something, "I need your help with my weapon. It took a beating during the Hydra fight. B-but, only if you can spare the time."

"How bad?"

Ruby's smile turned meek, "I have to take the whole thing apart just to fix it. I'd… really appreciate it if you paired up with me on it."

"You don't mind me looking at the interior workings of your weapon?" Arex asked.

"Not at all," Ruby replied, shaking her head softly, "I don't like showing people how Crescent Rose works, but I think it's only fair you get to see it now."

Arex slowly nodded, "Do you understand what it means for me to see Crescent Rose in such a state?"

"You're a genius when it comes to technology, so I think you'd be able to build her yourself after we're done," Ruby replied, tucking some strands of hair behind her ear, "I… don't mind that. It's you, so I don't have anything to worry about."

Does Ruby even know what she's talking about? The redness in Arex's cheeks seemed to think so.

"I'll be ready in a minute or two," Arex finally breathed out, keeping her pillow pushed into her lap as she looked to her dresser, "I just need to throw on a pair of pants."

Ruby's eyes glanced downward and caught a small glimpse of Arex's bare legs, her realization only sinking in afterward when her own cheeks dusted red in return, "O-oh, yeah, sure. I-I didn't know you slept like that."

"I don't have anything else to wear for pajamas, so I'm stuck with this," Arex replied, waiting patiently for Ruby to get up.

"Y-you don't? I have some extra sets if you needed something to borrow."

Arex… found herself actually turning that offer down. Both mentally and verbally, "That's alright. I've… sort of grown used to it the past few nights."

Ruby's blush only festered, eventually causing the girl to get up and quickly stand, "I-I'll be waiting in the hall then. Just… wear whatever you think would be comfortable. I don't know how long it'll take."

Arex nodded to that, then watched as Ruby made her way to the door and let herself out, closing it behind herself.

Now… the hard part.

"Um, Kitsuki?" Arex asked, glancing over her shoulder and flicking one of her wings, "I need my wings back."

* * *

 **Wha?! Exposition through scroll messaging? It turned out pretty well though, I have to admit. Plus it displayed more of their two personalities when they converse with one another. Niro's whole attitude changes when he talks with Anoel in comparison to when he talks with anyone else.**

 **I had a ton of fun writing that long interaction.**

 **Did you know Niro and Anoel can have adorable conversations? Now you do XD. All of the interactions this chapter were designed to be fluffy and cute, so hopefully that's a nice turn of events for you.**

 **I'm more motivated to write for RH for the moment, but I'll switch to Flame's chapter next.**

 **I think it's obvious, but there will be a yuri component to RH. Arex, by now, should have practically screamed this truth to you in her thoughts and actions alone. How far this extends to... well, that's to be determined.**

 **For now,** _ **Favorite**_ **and** _ **Follow**_ **.**

 **I look forward to seeing** _ **REVIEWS**_ **for this. You'll be introduced to a LOT of concepts of mine. Feel free to give me your thoughts.**

 **Cya XP**


	18. Afraid

Rogue Huntsman

Afraid

«»

Ruby disassembled Crescent Rose into three large pieces. She laid out its scythe blade first, disconnecting that segment and sliding it aside. She then split the shaft in two to unveil the inner mechanisms of its rifle and trigger system.

"It really is all fused," Arex said, walking around the opposite end of the workstation and placing her arms on the table, "Each of these pieces, they'll have to be re-forged."

Her eyes scanned the weapon's interior, delicate fingers working through melted slides of metal and merged gears that would've been able to individually turn. She touched along the rifle's trigger and loading system, skimming past the priming bolt and the cartridge ejector.

Even the clip release was no longer operable…

"I know…" Ruby replied meekly, leaning against the workbench opposite Arex, "It'll take me all week to remake everything. I wasn't expecting that big grimm to be so hot."

She blew a swift breath into her dangling asymmetrical bangs, finishing with a disappointed pout.

"You haven't learned much about Dremoha yet, so it's not your fault," Arex offered, picking out a few pieces that survived the intense heat and warping they were placed under, "But your calculation's a bit off."

She set a couple more pieces aside before looking down the shaft in front of her, counting up everything in need of reforging and making a mental map of it all.

"We can get it done tonight."

"T-tonight?!" Ruby's eyes went wide, her silver irises immediately snapping to Arex, "B-b-but, the forge, most of the pieces need precise temperatures to make! We'll need to adjust the heat per segment, and each segment alone requires an entire treatment process and shaping!"

"Which is why we'll just use all the forges," Arex offered, reaching across the surface of the table and activating its built-in scroll. Through that, she connected herself into the room's circular grid of stations and activated them all.

"H-how are we going to manage all of them? And what about others? I can't be the only one in need of fixing their weapon…" Ruby replied, glancing to the door.

"I doubt too many others were brave enough to actually get close to the Hydra. They're students, after all. Some may have been stupid enough, but they were likely held back by someone who knew the grimm's surface temperature." Arex sifted through each individual forge on the digital display before her, something only administrator access was allowed to do.

Thankfully, Ruby didn't seem to notice what she was hacking into.

Through there, she readjusted each forge to a heat scale that met each necessary temperature they'd need. Ruby was right. They'd need several different temperatures to run through each forging process.

That process's time was doubled due to the intricacy of all these parts. Overall, this issue would've undoubtedly taken a week to finish.

But that was only taking into account a single forger.

Two people made things a bit more efficient. One can monitor and time the forges while the other works on the actual materials. The industrial sized laser cutter operated from designs submitted through a digital scroll system, making that process incredibly more efficient with how remote Arex could make it.

Grinding shouldn't take too long either. The more time-consuming processes were manually shaping certain pieces they couldn't simply cut from a sheet of metal and actually treating each piece to be dustrophobic.

Not to mention treating the rest of the weapon alongside the internal mechanisms.

If they were going to put so much effort into fixing Ruby's weapon, Arex was going to make sure it was as heat-retardant as possible to make sure it wouldn't happen again. But she didn't want to stop there.

She wanted to make sure the entire weapon repelled Dust in all varieties. That meant it'd be incredibly heat resistant but it'd also resist the opposite extreme temperature as well.

"I take it you were too fast for your partner to stop you?" Arex asked, setting the temperature in the final furnace on the list before turning her gaze to Ruby.

The young girl shrunk slightly from the question, "Maybe?"

"You were," Arex sighed. She knew what Ruby's semblance was by now considering she used it herself in the Hydra fight.

How fast Ruby goes in comparison to how fast she went personally… she didn't know. She only got a taste of the reaper's speed.

That curiosity wouldn't get to her, though. Not now.

They had a few minutes of waiting for the time being. She could speed up the furnaces herself, but she didn't exactly want to show Ruby her affinity.

The girl already knew about her wings. Adding another secret to that list might not end well, especially since she wasn't even sure if Ruby could keep the first secret to herself.

"Thank you, by the way…" Ruby muttered, pulling her arms closer to herself, "for helping me with this."

Arex broke any eye contact with Ruby and looked elsewhere, "Don't worry about it. Did you treat your weapon with anything before? Or was it only just fire Dust applied…?"

She slowly brought her eyes back to the girl, watching as a couple emotions crossed Ruby's face for a few passing seconds. She held up a finger, about to answer with something… but those words soon left her as she slouched her shoulders.

Deflated.

"I think it was just fire Dust. I wanted to apply ice as well, but the two Dusts kept clashing and every time I tried the metal would crack and… yeah…" she slowly breathed out, peeking a cute silver gaze back at Arex's own expression.

It wasn't anything patronizing or critical, not even analytical or calculative at the moment. It was just… slightly amused.

"Ever get one of your weapons treated to be dustrophobic?" Arex asked.

"No," Ruby replied with a baited breath, letting it all out in a tired sigh, "We couldn't afford anything high-end like that. Signal had a decently sized forging room and a decent backing, but it's the academies the government prefers to fund."

"Well, we have the means to do it here," Arex informed, nodding to the immense circular room around them, "Want to make Crescent Rose completely immune to all Dust effects and temperatures?"

Ruby's eyes perked up to that, her whole demeanor changing in an instant as she tossed her hair up and down, "Yes! I've always wanted to."

Arex spared a small, bemused smile, tapping away at the scroll beneath her absently as she turned her gaze to the side. Her anxiety wasn't as bad with Ruby… Though, it helped that they were alone.

If there was a crowd… or even one other student in the room, things would've been a lot more strained for her.

Instead, it was just the two of them.

The list beneath her slowly began to glow green in completed progress bars, each forge reaching the temperatures she set them to in the next few seconds.

"Let's start with cutting all your pieces out," Arex said, tapping the workbench in front of her and looking to Ruby's scroll, "Still got your weapon's designs on there?"

"Yeah, of course," Ruby pushed her scroll forward and onto the built-in scroll of the table, a digital circle quickly forming around the device as its files were read, "I can find all the pieces we'll need. Are these everything that still function?"

Ruby picked up a few stray pieces, turning one of them around with her fingers as she looked to the rest of her disassembled weapon.

"To tell you the truth, I'd rather we just re-cut everything," Arex admitted.

Against Ruby's own knowledge, there were methods performed during the heat treatment process that directly involved aura. Additionally, if you merged that with an alloy to create a perfect balance between spring steel and memory metal, it won't just be durable…

It would be able to rebound from any deflection or heavy clash without any lasting damage.

"I don't want you wasting too much time on this. You're already being really generous as it is," Ruby responded, placing the piece down.

"If I'm going to help you, then that includes advice as well. I want to use a different set of materials to build the interior of your weapon again," Arex informed, placing her warm cheek in the palm of her hand, "And again, don't worry about it. I… like working on weapons."

"A-are you sure?"

Arex gave the reaper a small nod, letting her eyes drift to the closed furnace at their station. She let the flames behind its door dance around out of sight, flicking them left and right to hold her mind in place.

"Okay, but… I used the best material possible for it. What do you want to use?" Ruby asked, watching as the girl's gaze slowly grew distracted.

"A variation slowly making its way into the forging world," Arex replied. She wouldn't admit it, but it was her design that was making its way into the common knowledge of smiths and forgers across the kingdoms, "It's a merge of titanium-alloy memory metal and a low-alloy spring steel."

"I… didn't even know that was possible…" Ruby murmured, her eyes looking down as she thought it through, "What does it make?"

"A light-weight blade," Arex replied with a shrug, finally bringing her eyes back to the red reaper's silver gaze, "It'll have an incredibly high yield strength and an insane malleability to it. So…"

She gestured to Crescent Rose with her free hand, watching as Ruby's mind visibly sped up.

"Meaning, even after heavy deflection it won't require any repairs! It won't even twist or warp through too hard a clash!" Ruby realized, Arex watching her eyes grow wide with excitement.

"If it ever does, you can just heat it and cause the memory metal to kick in," Arex replied with an amused smile, watching literal colors dance around the girl's face, "It'll return to whatever shape you set it to once forged."

"It's… i-it's…" Ruby was tripping over her words in her own excitement, rushing from thought to thought and forgetting whatever trains she kept building in the wake of her mind, "It's smart! Really smart! I… I never thought to make an alloy like that…"

"That's because it's not possible without certain procedures being done," Arex mentioned, "It wasn't something that could've been easily discovered."

"It just makes it even more amazing…" Ruby couldn't help it, she really couldn't. She loved this kind of stuff, "Do you know who invented it?"

Arex only shrugged and looked away, "They like to keep themselves known only by an alias. Sparrow, if you know her…"

"S-Sparrow?!" Ruby, hands down - literally, she threw her hands down onto the table - knew that name by heart, "I follow her posts! She releases designs weekly and has an incredible following. Her works are amazing, every single one of them. But I checked her posts this morning! I didn't see anything about a new alloy…"

Arex mentally rolled her eyes, tilting her head ever so slightly as she watched Ruby's excitement only flourish, "It was only just released to the public. The formula and method of its forging were actually forwarded to a couple people a few days ago."

"W-wait," Ruby suddenly dashed around the table, taking Arex's shoulders in her grasp as she gripped the fabric there, "Were you… one of them?!"

"Honestly? No, not really," Arex offered with a smile.

"Then…" Ruby's fingers clasped all the tighter, "how do you already know about it if it was only just released?"

Arex took that second to take a step back, but as soon as she did Ruby closed the distance made from it, "I-it helps that I… may or may not… know her…"

Considering she _was_ her, it was more of a 'may not'.

Ruby's eyes only widened even further.

"Before you explode," Arex started, holding up a quick finger and pushing Ruby's face back by the tip of her adorable nose, "I can't tell you anything personal about her. You have to understand that."

Ruby quickly nodded her head, opening her mouth to take in a quick breath-

"And nothing about her appearance either. She… doesn't like the attention."

The reaper paused a moment, then slowly let that breath out, ready to ask at least one-

"She… also… doesn't want me to talk about her… to anyone."

Ruby pouted, "Awe! Come on, really? Nothing?"

"She's reserved like that," Arex offered, watching as Ruby slowly released her tight grasp on her sweater and moved back to her spot at the workstation, "I don't think that'll ever change…"

"People change," Ruby sulked, squishing her cheeks into her hands as she stared at Arex across the workbench, "Can you at least tell me if she's nice?"

Arex, with her balance back in her own hands, quietly slipped her arms back onto the table and lowered her gaze. Nice… that was always such a hard term to define… with how vague it truly is.

"She tries to be…" Arex replied distantly, satisfying Ruby for the time being.

* * *

This lousy bar couldn't hold a candle to the one I have back at my place.

Rain began to slowly fall around me, dispersed in ill-timed drops as I tilted my cowboy hat up. Gray skies swept across the atmosphere above, blanketing Vale in a dark haze of perspiration and building electricity.

The clouds in the distance were dark, black… and they sparked with fading white light.

Another storm was on its way to Vale.

I didn't feel like clearing it this time.

"Niro, is that you?"

A familiar voice spoke at me from the bar's entrance, drawing my gaze from the clouds as a woman with red hair looked at me from its open door.

Red hair and golden eyes were all I cared to notice on her, considering she'd love it if I stared at all the other places most men preferred to drop their gaze to. She was one of my patrons, an annoyingly flaunty one with a seemingly insatiable desire to be given attention.

Anoel never liked her… maybe it was their bust sizes. I didn't know, this one always looked like she'd fall over from her chest alone.

"Seraphine," I tipped my hat to her, rain water falling from its rim as the weather began to pick up.

"It is you! Your bar's been closed for a few days now, so I'm hopping around town looking for a place to drink while you're away," she spoke out to me through the pelting water, holding the door open for me, "Are you coming in?"

I was 278 jobs in by now, completing catch and release escort missions, targeted stolen goods side-missions, delivery routes, Grimm clearing assignments, anything I could find to sate my boredom.

But it seemed the rest of the jobs on the list were timed for past midnight… which meant I had a few hours to kill.

Unfortunately, I couldn't do so literally.

Not like alcohol would help either when my body's already immune to its effects. But that never stopped me from drinking in the past.

I moved forward and walked inside, letting Seraphine close the door behind us as I looked around. The water on my coat slowly steamed away, my gaze taking in the details of my surroundings before I moved for the bar at the back.

Stools ran across its front, some of them filled. Square tables littered the room I crossed, chairs circling each one with only 18 customers scattered about the bar's open floorplan. 3 other people took to the stools at the bar, leaving 7 available seats for anyone else to take.

Scroll monitors dotted the high walls of the room, spewing whatever news the broadcasters cared to spit at us as I took the furthest stool to the right, at the bar's corner.

Seraphine had the brawn to take the one to my immediate left.

She wore a dark, crimson coat, covering most of her body from the rain outside. She took that off as soon as she sat down, pale shoulders visible in a backless, black dress. Beneath the cut skirt of her thigh reaching attire, she wore black, heeled boots, each reaching as high as her own knees.

It didn't take long for a few men to start taking their glances, it happened everywhere she went. It started happening a little less when she stopped wearing her usual red and transitioned to black eight months ago.

That was when Anoel started avoiding her.

I knew why, though. She switched to black because she found out it played into my preferences.

"So, getting back into the business?" Seraphine asked, crossing one elegant leg over the other, purposefully left over right to brush her leg against my jeans.

"More or less," I replied, moving my own leg away as the bartender reluctantly made his way over. I didn't know him, didn't want to. He owned a bar, I owned a better one.

He took our orders and scurried away. His eyes only looked toward me in building fear, keeping whatever wit he had in him silenced in an attempt to not get my attention in the wrong way.

Everybody avoided my bad side, it seemed.

They were all idiots. I only _had_ a bad side.

Though, Anoel won't quit in her attempts to convince me otherwise…

"There _has_ to be more to it than _that_ ," Seraphine's silken voice slipped through the dull background noise of the news above us, "You've taken contracts before, but you've never had to close your bar to do so."

She was taking advantage of the fact Anoel wasn't here.

"I had to this time," I muttered lowly, reaching out to catch the sliding glass of my drink the bartender pushed my way. He was keeping his distance. Perfect.

I took a slow sip, tasting whatever he threw together for me. I asked for the strongest concoction he had…

This tasted like I was gargling pebbles soaked in nine different brands of dry whiskey, then lit on fire.

It was decent enough.

Seraphine hummed for a moment, sipping from a thin black straw as her golden eyes took me in, "I guess your business is your own."

"It's never anyone else's anyway," I countered, getting a crooked smile from the woman beside me.

"True, but I'd love to at least share a conversation with you. Do you know how hard it is to get you to talk?" she asked, stirring her straw around as she smiled.

Anoel never seemed to have any problems doing just that.

"Maybe it's because I don't want to," I replied, drinking into the next half of my drink and letting the ice shift, "Or, maybe it's just you in specific."

"Me? _Honey_ , you're the only man who _doesn't_ talk to me," she replied, her fingers having the seemingly potent audacity to touch the sleeve of my arm.

"I wonder why," I vocalized my inner sarcasm for once, letting the words drift as icily as the alcohol in my cold beverage, "I wouldn't bother trying."

"Why? Are you taken?" she furrowed her brows, leaning forward slightly to try and catch the gaze of my lime green eyes, "It can't be that baseless info-broker I always see you with… can it?"

Baseless was a term used by people that had no idea what the word meant. Using it, by definition, was a baseless action that only emphasized the ignorance of its attempted use.

Besides, the answer to her question was simple.

"You think I'm in a romantic relationship?" I asked, taking the last portions of my drink in. Whatever ice was left clattered against glass as I set my empty beverage down, pushing it aside for now.

"Well, yes, you have to be," she justified her own thoughts with her own words, it seemed, "But, even then… there's no way you could've…"

"Resisted for this long?" I finished, turning half my gaze to her.

She was taken aback, almost confused by the words I threw at her.

She should be.

"Your semblance isn't a card that can be played on any table," I said, brushing her fingers from my arm and letting their delicate pads fall to the bar's surface, "It requires your mind's dominance over someone else's will. You can't charm everyone you see."

"But everyone I've tried it on has been so easy…" she retaliated, leaning toward me with uncertainty, "My semblance has even worked on instructors, professors at academies, but… it can't even so much as _touch_ you?"

"You haven't tried very hard," I retaliated, my eyes drifting to the bartender and catching his wandering gaze. He immediately started fixing me another drink.

"I did… physical contact is the most direct way," she reached out and touched the back of my hand, the one that wasn't gloved, "but…"

I caught a new glass that slid my way, full of another serving of whatever stones I drank from my previous beverage mere seconds ago.

"Something wrong?" I asked with a half-amused smile, almost patronizing in appearance.

I took that moment to take a sip of my second dosage of liquid poison, the concoction sliding down my throat as I set the glass back down.

"I… don't feel anything. I can always sense a heat stemming from someone's lust and emotion, but you…" she slowly withdrew her fingers, clutching them into the palm of her hand as she sought out my eyes, "I feel nothing."

"Like I said, your charm doesn't work on everyone," I reiterated, drinking another half.

It was an impossible task… what she was searching for. There was no way in any hell or any godforsaken planet I'd ever return the attention she was craving.

I didn't even know why she was insane enough to crave it anyway.

"Find someone else," I followed up, setting my glass down as my voice grew low again, "It'll be more worth your time that way."

That seemed to quiet her down, and for the sake of boredom and a distraction, I tuned into the news report broadcasted through each of the scroll monitors throughout the shady bar.

" _Aside from Sparrow's most recent development hitting the kingdoms by storm, Sentinel seems to have gone dark. Their weekly raids have paused, raising tension across faunus labor corporations across the kingdoms. Are they preparing for a larger scale attack? Or, are they finally taking a respite after all this time?"_

Sentinel… the masked group of digital renegades wreaking havoc across the digital world for large and small companies alike. The one group of hackers to ever maintain such a high streak of anonymous cyberattacks…

They siphon money, release deeply guarded secrets to the public, break systems ordinarily set in place to limit the freedom of workers, deliberately raise salary counts across the board… Sentinel was the stereotypical 'steal from the rich, give to the poor' group.

But they worked from an online list of names. Each name on the list is submitted by the public, and additionally, the public up-vote whatever name they wish to prioritize and seek retribution from.

It was a game… a sadistic, cynical, overwhelming display of power some kids want to flaunt to the rest of the world because they figured out such a big, security flaw in the system.

We route every goddamn piece of information through designated towers throughout the land. Sure, we can bounce signals from one to the other, but they were focal points.

They bottleneck the information, making it all ripe for the picking if security was compromised. Digital databanks were developed because of this…

But even those were an easy task for the group to hack into.

Arex was hired to protect certain pieces of software from up-voted companies a few times. Most she turned down considering she wasn't a fan of those companies herself. But, sometimes a company was prioritized that she did business with…

So, she played the neutral card and did what she could. Those were some of the few times Sentinel had trouble.

Every other time, the masked group's list alone forced companies into total 180s. Being up-voted was like setting the noose for an execution and inviting the public to pull the lever.

Sentinel was only interested in watching the corpse fall.

After all, if a company didn't change their ways in the small window before their cyberattack… they'd fall to the ruin of the public eye.

It was rather efficient, but incredibly naïve.

A certain level of ignorance was needed to run this world…

It was far too dark to go a day without turning a blind eye.

"You know," I heard Seraphine's voice again, drawing my attention back to her, "I think only one thing's been proven tonight."

Her purrs rolled from her soft lips, making a move to lean closer to my side.

"Your _immunity_ only makes me want you _even more~_ "

"Curiosity tends to kill, I hope you know that," I replied, but she only proceeded to snake her arms beneath my own and bring her stool closer, "More contact won't work either."

"I'm not trying to make my semblance work," she chastised, grabbing her drink and pulling it back toward her now that she repositioned, "I just want to get closer to you while I can. You're not behind a bar this time."

I moved from her grasp before she could blink. She didn't even realize something was off until she looked up and noticed a shocked, nervous, and completely confused bartender's face in the place of where mine should've been.

I exchanged placed with the man. He needed a woman in his life… probably.

As Seraphine recoiled away from the flustering bartender like he was a burning flame, I took my drink back into my grasp from my new position behind the bar… in front of the woman sitting at its other side.

I half-wondered if his ears popped from how fast I moved him.

"Behind the bar, you say…" I said, leaning against the bar's surface before Seraphine.

Her cheeks grew uncharacteristically red, her face quickly flushing beneath her own astonishment as I swirled my drink around, "H-how did you-"

"Don't ask stupid questions," I cut her off, "I hate those."

She snapped her mouth shut, golden eyes trying to read my own beneath the rim of my hat. The bartender beside her eventually got up as she remained silent, making his way back behind the bar again. He made no move to get me out of it.

He really was terrified of me… I preferred it that way.

* * *

' _Arex, I got called away to do something. I won't be back for another hour or two, so I need you back in the room as soon as possible.'_

They were nearly done with Ruby's weapon, the final stretch actually. And that was just assembling all the pieces into their respective places. The entire process had only taken three hours, bringing the time closer to eleven.

But one text seemed content to stop Arex's help from going any further.

"Hey, Arex. Your sister's messaging you," Ruby informed absently, focusing on a few tiny pieces in a nest of others before her.

Arex set whatever tools she was using down to respond.

' _We're finishing up soon. Is it important?'_

She sent her response to keep working on her own intricate array of parts, but her scroll immediately pinged as soon as she hit send.

' _Very.'_

' _What is it? We'll only be another few minutes.'_ Arex was getting a little concerned now, switching whatever attention she had before to her scroll.

' _It started raining about half an hour ago, a couple minutes after I left the room. A storm's brewing and lightning will start flashing soon. I need you back there, now.'_

' _It's a storm. I still don't see your point.'_

' _It'll start getting worse very soon, and this isn't about me.'_

The high walls of the forge room suddenly shook, piercing thunder riding down from the stone smoke stacks towering above each stationed furnace.

The rain was growing heavier, crashing against the building in windy currents now.

' _Is this about Kitsuki?'_ Arex asked, the dull ambiance of the storm filtering in from around her.

' _Yes,'_ there was a short pause in the messaging, but Arex was already starting to shut the forges down remotely, _'Kitsuki's deathly afraid of lightning.'_

That message alone was enough for Arex to make her decision. But what followed only fueled whatever haste she was finding herself drawing on.

' _I don't want her alone right now. Something in her past scarred her for life, I don't know what yet. But this fear isn't something as shallow as a phobia. It stems from something that nearly killed her.'_

Arex's heart seized at those words. She hated stories like this, she's experienced them too many times to only see it as a fantasy. It was a fear she knew existed in far too many people…

But to be alone while your anxiety and petrification seeped through your entire being… it was more than enough to force her to run.

"I'm sorry Ruby, something's come up." Arex dropped her tools into a storage box, quickly sliding that beneath the workstation as she cleaned herself up at one of the sinks, "Can you finish this on your own?"

"Yeah, sure. Is everything alright?" Ruby glanced up in mild worry, watching Arex make her way to the door.

"Um, for the most part. There's just… something important I need to do," Arex replied, swiping the panel beside the large metal doors.

"Okay. This meant a lot to me, you know," Ruby replied back, wanting to at least get her thanks across, "I can make it up to you-"

"Don't bother, I already said it's fine," Arex waved over her shoulder and left, leaving Ruby behind as the forge room doors closed behind her.

Lightning flashed through the halls as Arex entered a sprint, pulling her scroll back out to scan through the halls in front of her. No students walked within them or the paths leading from this building to the dormitory, so she fell into a dive and pulled out her wings.

Her speed tripled as she slipped out of the building's exterior doors, crashing through whatever rain that fell around her as the storm raged above.

She was soaked in a matter of seconds, but she didn't care. She knew where Kitsuki was coming from with this, and her heart continued to throb from the mere thought of leaving her alone any longer.

Thunder crashed down from the sky, illuminating the courtyards of stone and grass beneath her as each crack fueled the worries building up inside her. Pillars glowed and shadows were cast, her already darkened form only speeding up as she cut across gardens and foliage.

She could barely see through the veil of water in front of her, but she didn't need to. The lights of her dormitory burned in the distance and she homed in on its entrance, not cutting her momentum until she was three feet from the door.

She was in before they could even open all the way, dripping from wings to sneakers as she took the corner stairwell and made her way up.

Steam trailed behind her as she worked to burn the water away, her eyes glowing in the dim lights of the building as she made it to their floor in mere seconds.

Her shoes were almost dry now, digging into whatever carpet they could as she dashed down the hallway, skidding around the next corner to carry her momentum along its banking wall.

The hallway's doors flashed by in blurs as a streak of steam and blazing aura burned in her wake, silver eyes flashing as she cleared the straightaway in a fraction of a second.

The faunus crashed into the air in front of their dorm room door at a speed she wasn't used to, her lungs wracked for oxygen as she fumbled for her black scroll. The pain in her chest never stopped, and now, her heavy pants were only building onto the soreness already there.

It took two swipes, but the door finally swung open and she pushed her way into a darkened room.

It was there Arex stood, eyes dashing left and right as water dripped slowly from her long, ebony hair. The dim light of the hallway filtered in from behind her, casting her shadow onto the floor as she breathed heavily in its frame.

It was silent… of course it'd be silent. Kitsuki couldn't make any noise.

She closed the door quietly, keeping its click silent as she swept her gaze over the beds. They were all empty.

The bathroom door was open and dark, and the closet next to it was open as well. The only doors that were closed were the one behind her and… her own closet…

The one she shared with Kitsuki…

She pushed her affinity into the room and kicked off her shoes. She was in there… there was no other place she could've been.

The girl crossed the room in a flash of light, thunder shaking the window in the darkness of the bedroom as she steamed softly in its shadows. Her reflective eyes burned again, glowing embers engulfed in a sea of dark blue irises.

Her fingers pressed against the door before her… tiny movements shaking through… but nothing more than a small tremble.

It was enough.

She slowly slid the closet door open, a soft click following the release of its latch as she lowered into a low crouch. She pushed the door further, stopping it just past halfway as another flash of light entered the room behind her.

For that brief, shining moment, she saw her.

Kitsuki sat curled up against the back wall of the closet. Her tails were quivering, tightly wrapped around as much of herself as physically possible while her hands remained against her head, holding her fox ears down.

Her eyes were squeezed closed, her face hidden behind the drawn up knees of her pale legs.

And when the thunder followed… she silently squealed and held herself all the tighter.

"Kitsuki…" Arex breathed out, her voice nothing more than a whisper as she watched the girl quiver in her own tails.

The storm rattled the walls around them, but the room seemed to fall into a dull, ambient silence. They both had night vision, so Arex didn't bother with pulling out any light from her scroll.

She kept her movements slow and gentle, lowering onto her wet knees as she leaned slightly forward. The closet was eerily still, the only movement within its shadows was the small shaking of the scared girl against its wall.

Arex's heart seized again…

She reached out a pale hand in the darkness of the room, careful beyond measure… but following its movements through before the next lightning struck.

Her delicate fingers hovered over the tails curled around Kitsuki's legs, staying in movement for just a moment… before Arex carefully grazed her hand over Kitsuki's soft fur.

It was a gentle touch, one embraced in a subtle heat and still fingers… but Arex kept from going further, only keeping to that small, careful contact.

Kitsuki's shivering seemed to settle for a moment, and for a few passing seconds, the girl slowly unsealed her hands from her head.

Two white fox ears fluttered and unfolded slightly, no longer pressed against the top of her head. Her chin followed in the tiniest of ways… and as the seconds crept by, two golden-orange eyes silently cracked open in the darkness of the closet.

Arex gave the girl a small smile, "Hey…"

Then the room flashed under the strike of lightning and thunder.

And Arex fell back, pushed onto the support of her hand behind her as she found a girl thrown into her arms. White hair slowly drifted and fell as a shaking frame threw itself into her grasp, tails trailing in the fading light of lightning before wrapping around Arex's legs.

Kitsuki's arms tightened around Arex's back as soon as the thunder broke into their room, her face stuffed into the sweater of the girl's damp chest.

"It's alright," Arex quietly murmured, pushing herself back to lean against the frame of a bed behind her. She urged more heat into the room, gently running her fingers through Kitsuki's silken hair to try and calm her down.

Lithe, pale legs shook and curled up behind the girl in her arms, drawing back in as Kitsuki's fox tails tightened their holds.

"Just keep still, everything's going to be okay," Arex continued to speak quietly, brushing down Kitsuki's ears.

She needed a way to distract her… anything to block the noise out.

Anything to take her mind off the storm.

* * *

 **Ah, Niro in his natural environment… he seems much more laid back and relaxed in a bar as opposed to his least favorite place in Vale. He's a lot more aggravated and disconnected when he's at Beacon, a lot more dismissive too.**

 **Niro gets up to his own shenanigans from time to time, he's not all serious… I think…**

 **He's actually really fun to write for. His persona's defined by some very specific, but also very incredibly broad factors. All of it comes together to both help define him and define his actions and words.**

 **Someone's taken to defining Niro as… Niro. I kind of like that description, it's a rather fitting way of explaining how Niro would act.**

 **Arex and Kitsuki though… any ships setting sail yet? They're so adorable together, I can't help it.**

 **I wonder how Arex will help Kitsuki through the night in the next chapter.**

 **No Flame yet? It's okay. I'm just** _ **WAY**_ **more motivated to write RH right now. Hopefully I'll get to flame next…**

 **For now,** _ **Favorite**_ **and** _ **Follow**_ **.**

 **I look forward to seeing** _ **REVIEWS**_ **for this. You'll be introduced to a LOT of concepts of mine. Feel free to give me your thoughts.**

 **Cya XP**


	19. Asleep

Rogue Huntsman

Asleep

«»

"Sorry, I hope you didn't mind. I left the sink running in the room so I had to tell one of my teammates to turn it off."

Rain water poured down the windows around them. Dark, dreary panes of glass shook and shuddered by the storm just outside its reaches.

A flash of white light passed through as Anoel's silken voice graced the air of the room. Its resonance accompanied by the ticking of Beacon's highest tower, gears endlessly turning far above her in this vast expanse of a circular office.

"It is quite alright, Miss Anoel. Though, we are very well funded. You won't be here for long, so a small depletion of water won't put a dent in our budget," Ozpin replied, fingers interlaced against his chin with two supporting arms placed on the desk in front of him.

"Oh, forgive me," Anoel apologized, snapping her scroll closed, "I meant to say the _shower_. I left the _shower_ running."

"Right…" Ozpin replied calmly, pausing for a moment.

Anoel only smiled innocently at the man and leaned back in her seat, slipping her closed ebony scroll into her pocket. She may have been wearing her short-shorts and t-shirt, but she was still in her element.

Only two ticks passed by from the gears above her as she crossed one elegant leg over the other, hands resting politely in her lap.

"Of course, to my…" Ozpin finally continued, clearing his throat for a moment, "proposition, if you will. I wish to ask you to do something for me."

"Nothing nefarious, I'm sure," Anoel commented, tilting her head ever so slightly.

"Nothing of the sort," the headmaster smiled, bringing his hands down to his desk, "I would like to hire you to gather information."

"Information," Anoel hummed, audibly mulling it over in a lighthearted voice, "On?"

"I believe a member of Sentinel has infiltrated my school," Ozpin responded evenly, his voice stoic and his eyes calm, "The pay for this exchange of intel would be…" he took a breath, smiling all the more, "quite lucrative. After all, we are _very_ well funded."

"Sentinel. What makes you think a member's here in the school?" Anoel asked.

She's been at odds about what to think of the infamous cyber-terrorist group, especially since she obtained a fair amount of information from their actions alone. Not everything was released to the public, after all.

But…

Sentinel also rendered a lot of information useless once some of it _does_ go public. She's lost quite a lot of revenue from their actions as well.

Leaving her on the fence.

"Let's just say our methods of intelligence gathering both break a few rules," the headmaster explained, "You can rest assured, I firmly believe this to be the case. A member of Sentinel _is_ here."

"And what's stopping you from gathering this information yourself?" Anoel asked in response, her voice growing curious… but guarded.

"Because, Miss Anoel," Ozpin replied, gesturing to the surface of his desk and the scroll within it, "The digital world is Sentinel's domain. You, on the other hand, manipulate human contact _exceptionally_ well. You can do what I cannot, in this case."

"Hmm, so it would seem," Anoel bobbed one of her boots up and down, something she actually threw on before coming here, "I suppose I can look into it. The pay would need to be rather steep, considering the danger of the task."

"I would expect it to be quite high, especially for someone in your area of expertise," Ozpin gave a small grin, a small satisfaction crossing his features as he stood from his chair, "It was a pleasure to meet you once more, Miss Anoel."

"The pleasure's all mine," Anoel replied with a smile, slowly standing as well as she made her way around her chair.

"Brief me at your earliest convenience."

"Sure, ironic choice of words by the way," Anoel dismissed as she clicked her way toward the open elevator, only casting a minor glance over her pale shoulder to the silvered man behind the desk, "Oh, and headmaster? You look good in lime green. You should hold your meetings with your fly down more often."

An amused smile crossed her lips as she disappeared into the elevator doors, turning around to give him a small wave.

"You're quite skilled with your words, I'll give you that," Ozpin returned the smile, respectfully standing until her full departure.

"Thank you," Anoel lowered her hand to her side, her smile remaining as she pressed a button on the elevator's control panel, "but I wasn't lying that time."

She gave him one final wave, pointing down with a cheeky smile before the golden doors closed completely.

"If only-" Ozpin glanced down, noticing quite the bright flash of his favorite underwear, "Oh my… I do look good in lime green."

* * *

Arex cradled her partner in her arms, softly petting her hair and ears down as she looked around the dark room. Kitsuki was still shivering, and every time she touched her pale skin she became painfully aware of the cold sweat shining across it.

No matter how much heat she pushed out to sooth her partner's fear, the shivers, the trembles, the quivers…

The tears…

They all remained.

Small hands gripped at the back of her sweater tightly, the cloth finally dry to the touch now, but that never mattered anyway. Her hair was still slightly damp, and when she turned her head to a sudden flash engulfing the room…

She wasn't sure if it was the water from her hair that melted into her sweater in that moment… or if it was from the kitsune shaking in her arms, trying to remain still.

Those delicate fingers only tightened when the thunder followed the flash almost immediately, the worst only to come from the storm in the sky.

What was she supposed to do? How was she supposed to do it?

What… _could_ she do?

"Kitsuki, I'm going to reach for something. Is that alright?" Arex asked softly, her voice nothing but a hushed whisper.

The arms around her back tightened, the girl in Arex's arms pulling herself against her partner all the more. She was afraid.

"It's alright, I'm not going anywhere," Arex hushed, keeping her arms around Kitsuki's own back and holding the kitsune against her, "I promise."

Whatever close proximity they had remained, and it'll remain like that for the rest of the night. Arex just had to find a way to work around it.

She had no intention of leaving Kitsuki's side, not on a night like this.

So, with cautious and slow movements, Arex slowly removed one of her hands from Kitsuki's back. Immediately, the girl tensed up in her arms, but Arex quickly calmed the girl down by trailing that hand up and scratching the base of Kitsuki's ears.

To replace it, Arex drew some strength into her dry wing, the draped appendage moving up from her right side and gently reaching forward. She cautiously wrapped that around Kitsuki's back, replacing whatever missing comfort there with the soft pressure of her feathers.

Her other came around as well, wrapping around Kitsuki's waist to blanket the girl in a gentle veil of subtle warmth.

The hand she still had beneath her wing soon moved up, and as the kitsune breathed out slowly, she brought it up to gently rub Kitsuki's other ear. Switching the scratching she was doing previously to the same caressing touch.

Adding a small gradual shift in her wings to rub the kitsune's back, Kitsuki's breathing quickly turned to panting as the girl's forehead leaned heavily against the center of Arex's chest.

Lightning flashed again, but this time, Kitsuki's flinch was contained in the embrace of Arex's black wings.

"Relax, just block it out. Try to focus on everything I'm doing," Arex murmured, feeling the muscles in Kitsuki's back grow tense from the following thunder.

It was in that position, those actions, the two stayed. Arex kept her attentions up, massaging Kitsuki's fox ears from base to tip as she maintained the small movements her wings were making.

Slowly, Kitsuki's shaky panting began to grow more even, and over time, the tight grasp of her arms and tails began to weaken ever so slightly.

But it wasn't enough to block everything out. Lightning kept bringing Kitsuki back to the storm, thunder kept reminding her of its looming presence, and the rain a constant thrashing noise in the background of it all.

Even so, Arex kept trying. And as she distracted Kitsuki as much as she could, she finally managed to reach beneath her bed and pull out one of her storage boxes she kept there.

The box was already open, its lid still beneath the bed as she glanced through the contents inside it.

Electronics.

Extra parts for her scrolls, backup pairs of earbuds both wired and wireless, speakers, holographic projectors, sensors, cameras…

Her eyes finally found what she was looking for, tucked against the side of the box's wall. With the only hand she had free, she reached into the box and pulled out a wireless set of headphones.

"Kitsuki, I'm going to help you block out the storm, but you have to trust me," Arex quietly said, her massaging fingers slowing in their movements.

The kitsune's panting continued, but even in her blissful state, those shining eyes slowly blinked open. Two burning sunsets looked up into two irises of orange and flashing pink, colors visible, even in the darkness of the night.

"Do you trust me?" Arex asked hesitantly, her eyes staring into those orbs she knew only her partner possessed. The very same orbs she was growing used to, even with so little time having passed between them.

A nod was all she needed, anything to let her know for sure…

Kitsuki's eyes blinked away for a moment, but those irises glanced back as soon as they averted. The kitsune's skin was flushed, having been like that for a while now.

A redness had long since swept over her face, hair a tossed mess, but even then, Arex watched as Kitsuki slowly nodded her head.

Two fox ears rose ever so slightly, their fluffy tips flicking the air as the kitsune put whatever trust she had for now into her partner.

Those orange irises quickly burned gold, Arex nodding in return before reaching up and gently removing her fingers from Kitsuki's left fox ear. She took the headphones she was holding into both hands, keeping her golden eyes on Kitsuki's own all the while as she adjusted the band to fit the girl's head comfortably.

Then she slowly slipped the padded speakers over Kitsuki's human ears, rotating them to keep the cushioned, flexible band atop the kitsune's head from touching her fox ears. Half of Kitsuki's hearing suddenly grew muffled, certain background sounds all of a sudden suppressed…

But her fox ears and her heightened hearing still listened. The ears atop her head still heard the storm and its breaching winds outside.

"I'll make you a custom set when I can to accommodate your fox ears too," Arex whispered, her voice slipping into an apologetic tone as she finished situating the headphones into place.

Her words and smile got another small nod in return, and Arex turned her attention to her scroll, finally breaking that eye contact the two held. She quickly withdrew the device from her pocket and synced it to Kitsuki's speakers.

And in a few seconds, Arex selected her longest playlist and began shuffling through her songs, starting with one she figured the kitsune would be okay with.

"This band's got a pretty funny name, but the song's good," Arex continued, letting her scroll play on its own as its music filtered through the speakers nestled against Kitsuki's ears, "The song's called 'The Reason'."

Arex smiled, closing her scroll now and turning her eyes back to Kitsuki's own… they seemed to have never left Arex's face, or her eyes…

Arex's pale cheeks quickly burned at that realization.

"Come on, let's get you into bed," the ebony haired girl said, nodding up to the blanket dangling over the side of her mattress.

Kitsuki's grip suddenly tightened again.

"I'll be joining you," Arex elaborated, her blush deepening, "I told you, I'm not going to leave your side."

The kitsune's fox ears immediately perked up in return to that, whatever tight hold she held on Arex's body soon loosened and came undone, her arms finally pulling back from around the other girl's sides.

"You ready to stand?" Arex asked.

Golden-orange eyes glanced down for a moment and watched Arex offer the kitsune her hands, both palms there and… ready to support her.

Kitsuki's own hands came up as she sat back on her curled legs, placing her fingers softly atop Arex's own as the avian girl watched her carefully. Both wings tensed as Arex slowly lifted, pulling Kitsuki and herself up against the bed behind them.

Lightning surged through the room in that moment, but its thunder was forgotten in the music and the eyes Kitsuki kept looking back to.

Watching for a fleeting color to appear… only to flash away again and again.

But it kept coming back.

A color she didn't recognize.

The two stood now, less than a foot of space between one another as Arex tilted her head to the right, ushering Kitsuki into a small step in that direction. The kitsune followed, matching Arex's movements in a momentary dance before her dark-haired partner turned her and pulled back the blankets.

"I'll climb in with you, I just…" Arex glanced down and reached into her pocket, pulling out her closed scroll and laying it on the small nightstand behind her, "need to take these off."

She moved one of her legs slightly, a soft pull suddenly reminding Kitsuki that her tails were still wound around Arex's legs.

Her fox ears folded for a moment, but she knew Arex needed to at least get into sleepwear as well. She just… didn't want to let go. She couldn't let go, not when she was finally finding a way to calm down.

Instead, Kitsuki took a step closer to her partner, reducing the space between them to nearly nothing as she pushed her tails downward, pulling cloth with them before quickly reaching up again and wrapping back around Arex's now bare legs.

They needed to at least be holding something, anything. It gave her comfort, just knowing someone was there.

"T-that works too…" Arex muttered, feeling her sweatpants drop to the floor. The tingling sensation of Kitsuki's tails around her legs clouded her mind, but she bit all of that back in favor of helping the kitsune through the night.

Even if it meant staying up through it herself.

Slowly, the two moved onto the bed. Arex went first, crawling across the mattress as she lifted the blanket and offered Kitsuki her hand, her partner following soon after. The avian girl moved Kitsuki's pillow over onto her own bed for the kitsune to use, sliding hers over to her temporary side for the night before laying the inside of her wing out beneath Kitsuki.

"Tonight, you can… sleep in my wings…" Arex informed, her gaze falling slightly, "I-if you want."

Kitsuki was already crawling herself into place, resting herself down gently atop Arex's feathers before letting her head fall to the comfort of her own pillow.

"R-right…" Arex breathed out, sighing with a mental 'okay' as she pulled their shared blanket up, carefully lying herself down next to her partner.

Kitsuki then rolled over as soon as she did to face her, those golden-orange eyes seeking out her own before closing.

They were reaching the peak of the storm's strength now, thunder and lightning synchronizing to crash down from the sky as one powerful surge. There wasn't a delay between light and sound anymore… it was all right on top of them.

Arex did one last thing that night…

She reached up one more time and gently took Kitsuki's fox ears between her fingers, feeling the soft, velvety fur beneath her fingertips as she carefully massaged them once again.

She hoped it was enough to get her through, to let her sleep in this kind of weather, with this kind of fear.

Her favorite playlist played in Kitsuki's ears, her affinity worked as a comforting heater beneath the covers, her wings held Kitsuki in a soft embrace, and above all that, she was giving the kitsune's fox ears a delicate massage to sooth everything over.

Before Arex knew it, Kitsuki cuddled into her side… and finally lulled off into a silent sleep.

She followed eventually as well, after an hour of making sure the kitsune slept soundlessly in her arms.

* * *

"So," Seraphine slowly swirled the contents of her glass around, fingers and eyes tracing patterns on the polished bar as she did so, "will you re-open the Black Stallion over the weekends at least? It'll satisfy plenty of your patrons, including me."

"That depends on the manner of my current task," I replied, black-clothed elbows leaning into the wood before me as the bustling bar grew in noise.

The amount of people in here grew to a staggering number over the hour of me being here. It still wasn't midnight, which meant I'd be here for even longer than acceptably necessary.

The bartender that once stood behind this bar gave up on attending it, his once sleek brown hair now a tossed mess as he drank his depressions away at the far end of his own establishment. His suit was disheveled, his eyes a bleary blend of confusion and repression, and his gaze never seemed keen on looking anywhere but the square napkin wrinkled between his hands.

Who could blame him?

An infamous bartender walks into _his_ place of business, takes position behind _his_ bar, and starts serving _his_ customers _his_ drinks?

Not only that, but because of the phenomenon, his bar, for some odd reason, thus becomes a circulating gravitational magnet to all night-goers in the immediate vicinity of _his_ establishment over nothing more than a whispered rumor spreading like wildfire?

The reigns were mine for the night, but I didn't want them. I was only passing the time while customers, several of which my own patrons, filtered through the doors to this wood-themed establishment.

It seemed people were hearing of the owner of the Black Stallion taking up a temporary position at another local bar for the night… and they didn't want to miss it.

A thousand stars fall from the sky in mere moments, and those are missed in fleeting seconds of blissful ignorance. Yet, they flocked here like Grimm to a grieving village…

All for what?

For this?

I slid a mixed drink down to a man sitting on one of the filled stools before me, his eyes lighting up as soon as it slipped across the clean surface of a sulking man's bar.

The liquid was gone in a few seconds.

"Oh, did you hear that?" Seraphine smiled, delicate lips pulling into an amused grin as she glanced up at me, "He practically groaned while releasing a breath, muttering the word 'ecstasy' as soon as he finished his drink."

"Ecstasy's often confused with small moments of pleasure refilling a void left by long periods of pain," I replied, pouring out seventeen glasses of varying alcoholic beverage before distributing four of them to customers across the bar in front of me.

The rest were picked up by waitresses approaching to deliver them to tables throughout the packed room.

I personally switched half of the scroll monitors dotted about the walls to livestreams of interest, most of which for entertainment purposes, while letting the rest stay on the news channel, for informational purposes.

This was where I'd be for a few hours, so I wasn't going to let that time be poisoned by poorly made decisions on other peoples' parts.

"Ecstasy can also be defined as pure moments of intense pleasure," Seraphine countered, her head tilting to cascade a flow of crimson hair over her shoulder, "Are you experienced in that area of expertise?"

Experienced? That was a relative term for anyone too inexperienced to understand the concept of perpetual learning.

There was no such thing as being experienced in anything.

You can experience something, then choose to forget it, yet… that still qualifies for being experienced, because you experienced something to a certain extent.

No…

What matters most are the experiences that permanently etch patterns and codes into your mind, forcing you to remember moments, sounds, visuals, smells, tastes… These are the moments that shred through doubt and uncertainty, replacing those fresh cuts with scars and eternal reminders.

 _Experience_ was for those who suffer most in their lifetime and the next. The worst of it only comes in moments of immense pain and solitude…

When you realize you're _alone_ in a vast reality so potent with life.

It's already known in moments of blood-spilled chaos and unkindled malice, a madness festers in the soul of the accursed victim at the center of it all.

They say the same can be said for anyone.

This accursed soul rests in the middle of a crimson valley of arrows and broken blades, beneath mountains of sin and carnage, and before rivers of glistening rubies and floating roses, literally breathing the air of their own misery.

The stale air of war.

Few know of the feelings incurred by the wrath of war, yet even fewer know of the blood-soaked lands of the days following a war's end.

When the expanse of a dry desert becomes so drenched in the red essence of all those who perished to scepter and sword, laid waste by the merciless king of a throne-less crown…

You'd know true ecstasy doesn't come from the moments of induced, temporary bliss.

True ecstasy stems from moments of understanding and recognition, of realizing what you have and what can be taken away, and what you take for granted in your sick excuse of a miserable, peaceful life.

When you realize what you have means nothing in the waking expanse of time and death, and you find actual meaning in the few moments you find most precious to you in that revelation…

Only then do you ever experience the purest extent of that word.

Even if you're the last one left to feel it.

"More experienced than you'll ever know," I replied earnestly, lowly, but evenly. The sickness festering in my soul from Beacon Academy was finally dwindling, fading from my immediate consciousness as I breathed the clean air of my preferred environment.

A bar filled with a ruckus of intoxicated people, most with aura and few without, but all here to intermingle in an atmosphere of false, proximity-based atmospheric enjoyment.

Seraphine's mind took a trip into the nearest gutter, something I didn't bother changing.

My response held a connotation she didn't need to understand, few deserved to, so I let her shuffle her legs in the current rising heat of her cheeks.

Cleaning glasses and preparing drinks was easy, stirring them was efficiently quick and shaking them even moreso, but I had my own methods.

Nobody goes to the Black Stallion just to drink a few drinks.

They come to see the lights.

This bar was mine for the night, and it may not be under the same name my father gave the building I now own, but it was close enough in concept that the difference wasn't immediately precedent at all.

It was all mine.

My bright green eyes crackled with energy beneath the rim of my hat, the rest of my body following as all that aura channeled into the fingertips of my right hand.

Then with a simple touch to the bar's surface…

The air shattered around me.

Space broke into fragmentations of off-set strands of light as drifting panels of my own aura twisted and merged. All across the interior of the room grew an expanse of enkindled lime green glows, fragmented and fluttering like stars falling from the night sky.

Glints of light shined across panels and lines, interconnecting the ceiling and the walls with an untouchable display of luminescence. I branched my aura down to each table, twisting down in spires to touch base at the center of each one before emitting a grid of light across their surfaces.

And from that point forward… I had every customer in this entire establishment eating out of the palm of my gloved hand.

I shifted the tables to new positions, customers who knew what was going on set their own chairs aside and prompted the rest to do the same, and then everyone got clear.

The whole room fell into a self-rearrangement, pushing furniture into new areas while creating new constructs out of the solid light of my aura alone.

Game tables generated across the grids I created throughout the room and tables, the branches I pulled down from the ceiling receding as those grids took temporary residence on the planes they now resided.

A pool table of energy built itself up across two large tables in the corner, another mirroring it to its immediate right. I racked the balls for them, supplied the sticks and the cue ball, and let them play.

Other tables merged and generated separate games.

From Ping-Pong to poker, alongside all the necessities that pair with each one like playing cards and accessories, I filled the room with reasons to stay and spend money, reasons to freely allow oneself to be extorted in order to have the time of one's life…

All while intoxicated under the craft of my own making.

"You truly have a gift, Niro," Seraphine sighed, leaning her side into the bar as her gaze turned to the room.

The majority of the people within the bar cheered loudly behind her, most beginning to indulge themselves in what I built before them.

Whatever remained of the rest of them regrouped at open tables I set aside for those wanting to converse. And, unforgettably, I left all the lonely suckers I have here at the bar itself to nothing but the treats of alcohol.

They didn't need anything more than that.

The sharp crack of a racked triangle of pool balls breaking and scattering across a falsely-felted table tipped into the room before a flash of lightning glowed through the windows.

I could feel the energy of the storm manifesting outside. It was building above us, filtering into the expanse of the bar around me and into my senses as rain cascaded down upon the streets of the city.

"I wouldn't call it a gift," I replied, cleaning out a couple shot glasses with a white cloth behind the bar.

"Something out there gave you a miraculous power, something for you alone to use. If it's not a gift, then what is it?" Seraphine asked, turning to face me again as she rested her chin into the sanctuary of her own palm.

"An anchor," I replied.

It was what held me in place within this existential expanse of agony and happiness. But with all relations, there was always a tradeoff, a mutual agreement or respectful contract.

Or, in some cases, a forced cooperation through means one side has no ability to refute… or chance to change.

With this, it was far more detrimental than anyone here could ever imagine.

And they never will.

* * *

Anoel sat on the floor of the dormitory hallway, back leaning against the door to her own room as she played on her scroll.

It was here she's waited for an hour now, nearly two.

Music played softly through black earbuds dangling from her head, fingers tapping to whatever melody playing from her scroll as she split her attention between reading forums and the heat signatures within the room behind her.

The two inside had finally settled down, and after a little while longer, she felt their heart rates begin to level off and grow steadily slower.

They were finally sleeping.

She continued her amusements for a while longer, making sure they were comfortably deep into their slumbers before she finally got up.

One good thing after another, Ano was making sure her sister could live a life she could be happy to live. The warm soul deserved a life like that…

Even if the eldest didn't.

A soft click signaled the unlocking of the door, and a moment later, Anoel was inside the room and re-locking the door behind her.

It was time she got her own sleep, after all.

* * *

 **Aww, Anoel's playing the orchestrator while Arex is putting her shyness and reserved nature aside for the sake of her partner. There's a very deep reason why lightning terrifies Kitsuki, a** _ **major**_ **reason.**

 **Obviously, it directly involves her past and why she's the way she is. That includes both mentally and physically.**

 **When it's eventually revealed, you'll know what I'm talking about. And when you eventually do, you'll realize how detrimental this kind of chapter really was.**

 **Even if, as of right now, it may just feel like sweet fluffiness.**

 **Oh, and Niro's just being Niro again. But now you can see why people enjoy his bar! You know, other than his connection to the widely spanning Information Network spread out across the world of Remnant's kingdoms.**

 **Incredible drinks and flashy entertainment, all made all the more potent when intoxicated. His patrons enjoy themselves quite thoroughly.**

 **For now,** _ **Favorite**_ **and** _ **Follow**_ **.**

 **I look forward to seeing** _ **REVIEWS**_ **for this. You'll be introduced to a LOT of concepts of mine. Feel free to give me your thoughts.**

 **Cya XP**


	20. Bagels

Rogue Huntsman

Bagels

«»

"Go home, Seraphine," I muttered, flicking the woman's wrist out from its support beneath her head and watching her face fall.

Her drowsy eyes widened, but the muscles in her neck and the recognition in her mind were too sluggish to save herself from the pain of jamming her nose into a wooden surface.

So I saved her the trouble and slid a stack of napkins over for her to fall on and squish her face into.

A muffled thanks was what I got in return.

I swept a clean white cloth across the polished bar before me, cleaning it up to return it to a shining luster. Something the previous owner _should've_ been doing, if he actually took care of his bar in the first place.

Instead, he was unconscious in one of his own booths, someone's panties covering his hair and his dress-shirt ripped in two.

It was two in the morning, my decision to keep the bar open later than I initially decided making itself apparent from my presence _actually_ still lingering here. But I had to call it when patrons started getting too intoxicated to distinguish which way the gravitational pull of the planet pulled you.

A couple of them ended up on the ceiling for a while, only falling down when they sobered up slightly.

My alcohol tended to have interesting effects on people…

"Can I havsh-" *hic* "jusht one mawr?" Seraphine tilted her head up, cheeks flushed beyond even the color of her hair as she dangled an empty glass over the bar in front of her.

Her eyes switched to me, paired with a pout and an attempted seductive gaze.

She ended up just looking like a tipsy puppy stuck on its back.

I took her glass and started cleaning it, pulling the cup away when she tried to grab for it. Her pout intensified before she lunged for the glass again, this time pushing herself onto the bar's counter to reclaim the cup.

"I'll be fine~" she nearly fell over my side of the bar, the only thing stopping her from toppling to the floor was my hand beneath her overturned shoulder, "I promishe."

Her slim arms clutched lazily at my sleeve, trying to pull herself back up from her half-falling, half-bent over position.

One of the patrons just leaving stole a quick glance at her before I turned my gaze to them, watching as they met my eyes, paled, and then dipped out the door.

The squirming woman on my arm was finally accepting her new reality of being stuck when I pushed her back into her seat and finished cleaning the last glass in use. I stashed it away before her eyes refocused on me, turning from thankful, to confused, to confident.

"What'sh wrong, Niro~" she cooed, leaning over her modest bust and crossing her arms on the bar's counter, "Don't want a woman getting touchy?"

"I figured you didn't want a face full of the floor," I replied, folding the cloth in my hands and setting it aside, "Was I wrong?"

She pouted again.

A small gleam of her aura passed over her skin and I noticed her alcohol levels drop. She was burning away the alcohol content in her system.

"It is," her pout turned into a frown, a look of genuine concern and hurt crossing her features, "because I'm not as pretty as Anoel?"

The answer to that question was as simple as a children's addition problem. Of course, even that was too complicated for an idiot to solve, let alone answer.

Besides, addition doesn't apply when looking at mechanical engineering and Dust reactors. Which were both needed to generate enough energy in my levels of care to produce an honest answer to that question.

"You're belittling yourself if that's the only conclusion you can come up with," I replied, turning to regard the owner of the bar once more to see if he had his keys on him.

He didn't.

So I turned around and placed my hand against the wall behind me, tracing its vibrations for a split second before feeling a metallic resonance off to my right.

"A-am I just not pretty at all-"

"Try not to belittle yourself further with more self-conscious false statements that seek attention," I cut her off, stepping over to a set of keys inside a draw. I traced them with my eyes for a moment, slipping my aura over its shape before closing the drawer and making my way around the bar.

"Huh?"

It's the closest thing she was going to get to a compliment from me. But seeing as she was intoxicated, confused, and vulnerable, I decided to find a little entertainment in her dulled consciousness.

"As in, you're stunning, seductive, hard to look away from, and entirely enchanting to anyone who stares for _too_ long," I listed off, making my way over to her and leaning against the bar, "Enticing, elegant, voluptuous."

The list went on. It was like she was designed to poison people with a cloud of lust and pheromones.

"D-do you mean that?" her face grew redder as she tilted her head down, ruby eyes glancing up into my own.

"Unfortunately, those are the current factors presenting themselves as issues for your walk home. Which means…" I stepped closer and reached an arm around her waist, getting a startled gasp from the woman as I took hold.

That gasp turned into a yelp when I threw her over my shoulder and dangled her there.

" _Someone_ might take advantage of you in your current state if you walked alone."

"C-come on, Niro! I can take care of myself!"

Small fists struck the cloth of my back, but I started walking anyway. This wasn't a night to be walking alone, not when it was prime time for the addicts to be walking around. Additionally, this was around the same time most un-reputable people ran jobs.

"Considering how easily I picked you up and gained possession of your body, I'd say otherwise," I hardly put any effort into that, let alone any aura. She was light as it was, which meant her strength was rather lacking.

As for her aura… she wasted too much of it already trying to push herself onto me through her semblance.

Leaving her with only half now compared to when she started with.

I made my way over to the door and turned for a moment to regard the room. Chairs were toppled and discarded, tables were clean but disarranged, the room was in disarray.

I let a fleeting light of my aura pass from my boots and into the floorboards, turning once I did and opening the door to leave. Behind me, the room fixed itself to the state it was in before I entered several hours ago, closing the door behind me once all the blinds were pulled down.

With a quick turn of the knob, I reached forward and replicated the key I traced earlier, pushing its hardlight edge into the lock mechanism in front of me and securing the door that way.

The bolts twisted, the pistons sealed, the door was locked.

I let the key of aura fade before glancing back over my shoulder, feeling two hands groping my pants and what lay beneath them.

"Change of plans," I stated, pulling her weight forward by the legs and letting her fall with an eep into my arms. I held her upper back and beneath the crook of her knees now, letting her dress settle again before I started walking.

"You have a really nice a-"

"And you have a really nice whiplash face," I interjected, glancing down the dark sidewalk in front of me and catching a shuddering glimpse of moonlight rippling over a puddle in the distance.

It was still raining. Still storming, in fact. But I kept the rain and thunder out of my proximity through a small field of evaporating aura…

At least, until I dropped her off.

I couldn't care less if I got wet.

It was water.

"Whiplash?"

"Yes, whiiiiplaaaash," I mocked before leaning forward and dashing several blocks down, turning the corner there before going several more.

I didn't stop until I reappeared before the stoop of her apartment complex, stepping out from the coverage there before glancing up into the rain-filled dark gray sky. The stars lay just behind the swirling clouds above, but those weren't what I was looking to.

I was counting the windows.

"P-please don't do that again…" Seraphine exhaled, her chest heaving in my arms as she pressed her face into the sleeve of my coat.

Her face was flushed again.

"I did warn you," I informed, turning my attention to a row of windows now that I found the height I was looking for.

"That wasn't much of a warning," she complained, her eyes finally opening again to look around, "I-I'll be fine from here. You can put me down now."

She made a move to lean out of my grasp, but I stopped her.

"I told myself I'd walk you home," I said, pulling her back and readjusting my grip before walking out across the sidewalk, leaving the light of the lobby doors, "Your home isn't the building. Your home is your room."

"Same difference. You don't have to do so mu-"

One glance down broke her retort into silence, causing her to look away in a fluster.

I had other reasons for doing this.

The darkness of an alley soon emerged around us, my black-clad form disappearing in its clutches as I entered the shadows and eventually looked up. I was right where I wanted to be.

With that, I cradled the woman in my arms more solidly and crouched down, feeling her eyes suddenly begin to widen and her mouth open, about to say something-

Before I reinforced the concrete beneath my feet and jumped.

Rain crashed against a disintegrating shield I hovered above us as we rapidly climbed in altitude. The building's windows and its walls rushed by in a blur, tapering off in their sudden passes as we began to reach the height I was aiming for.

Whatever she was going to say got stuck in her throat, and in the next moment, we reached the apex of my leap.

A small platform faded into existence beneath us as I glanced into the window to her apartment. Glowing lime green aura solidified just in time to catch the soles of my boots, the energy dripping down from my glove as I walked forward.

The green-lit pathway connected itself with the sill to her window, small wires soon branching up around the border of its frame before the whole pane opened inward.

I made my entry there, passing into her darkened bedroom in silence and resting her on the bed.

She didn't have much to say.

She just laid there on her elbow, watching me leave.

I stepped back out into the rain, this time ignoring the need of a nullifying shield as thunder slowly rolled in again. My clothes immediately dampened and grew soaked, and once more the sound of the storm above circulated through the electrified air I breathed.

"Take care of yourself, Seraphine. And don't worry about your neighbor. His screams will be short," I spoke into the room, pulling down the rim of my cowboy hat as I took my leave.

The pane of the window sealed closed once more and repaired itself, the platform beneath me receding from her perch as I transitioned to a few windows down.

To the room adjacent hers.

Once I reached that window, I kicked the pane in with a crash of shattering glass and strolled inside. The room itself was abnormally warm, scented smoke drifting around the ceiling before spilling out into the rain.

My eyes then traced the darkness and found a man with wide eyes and flushed skin, a cold sweat running across his bare chest and arms as I watched him fumble and fall from his bed.

"W-what the hell?!"

"Please don't speak of my home in such a way," I replied, letting my voice carry itself into the darkness of the room with a low, demonic whisper, "It's good to see you, Bart. I'm not exactly due to take you for another three months and nine days, but I figured I'd stop in early. _Just for you_."

His eyes went even wider, "S-SATAN?!"

I was here for information in accordance for a high-paying job.

He was going to give that intel to me.

The act was just to mess with his baked mind.

* * *

The first light of dawn crept in through their dorm room window, slipping over the disheveled confines of a set of beds on the left side of the room.

Its warm rays were enough to pull Arex from her sleep, even though she only managed to get a solid four hours of it. The rest were either spent worrying about Kitsuki, struggling to sleep through the storm herself, or due to her mind mentally slapping her in the face every time Kitsuki moved her tails.

Which, while the kitsune slept, happened surprisingly often.

And given the fact the three appendages were wrapped tightly around Arex's bare legs, thighs, and, sometime during the night, even managed to fold and bend around her waist and the juncture between her legs…

 _Any_ small movement was enough to jolt the girl awake.

The kitsune was the one who was supposed to be quivering in her tails, not _her_.

Deep orange eyes slowly opened as Arex tried not to move, biting back the urge to squeeze her legs together as she let out a shuttering breath. She kept it quiet, but the air in her lungs expelled on its own when she finally recognized how close she was to Kitsuki's own frame.

She… wasn't really thinking about that last night. All she wanted to do was get the kitsune to bed and help her sleep through the night, especially with a storm raging around them. But now?

What was she _supposed_ to think?

Kitsuki's sleeping face lay comfortably before her own, small nose pressing against the side of hers as she rested and breathed silently. The headphones the girl put on the kitsune's ears were displaced slightly, only playing through one ear while the other lay pressed into the bed next to her pillow.

The kitsune had to have shifted some time in her sleep to slide closer to Arex… leaving her pillow behind in favor of whatever comfort she could find against _her_.

Her silken white hair lay in a slightly tousled cascade down the side of her face, rolling messily over her pale shoulder where Kitsuki's sweater laid loosely open, cloth riding down her arm in her curled position.

Arex bit her lip and choked on a held breath when Kitsuki stirred slightly, ungodly soft tails tightening and shifting in their hold around and between her thighs as the kitsune tucked her elegant chin slightly.

Two bare legs then curled up as well, and it wasn't until then that Arex realized Kitsuki's lithe legs were entangled with her own, squeezing softly around her burning skin beneath the covers.

 _H-how did she get so close?!_ Arex's mind was running rampant, treading waters she really shouldn't be treading as a permanent fluster washed over her cheeks.

She needed to get out of that bed… _now_.

But how?

She was entangled, ensnared in the adorableness of her partner and trapped in her sleeping grip. The kitsune not only had Arex's legs encased in the fluffy domain of her secured tails, but the beautiful creature before her also rested on top of one of her _wings_.

What was she supposed to do about _that_?!

Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Her burning orange eyes kept flicking back and forth, thoughts attempting to string together to form some sort of escape strategy. She was able to get most of her mind under control, but some of her thoughts remained particularly focused to the fur brushing against her panties.

She _really_ needed a shower after she got out of this.

Not that she _needed_ one, but she _wanted_ one. She barely worked up a sweat last night working with Ruby in the forge room. Without a need for her Affinity, working by the forges rejuvenated her more than exhausted her.

And after that? She burned all that collected energy in her mad dash to get back to their room. Even that didn't push her body, so she wasn't in need of a shower.

She just needed an excuse to get out of the enticing grip of heaven's gate right in front of her.

But even that didn't sound so convincing…

She could always wait until Kitsuki woke up, but she couldn't bare the embarrassment that would follow if a conscious Kitsuki was suddenly aware of all this too. Of all the actions she took in the innocence of her sleep.

And then there were her eyes…

The golden-orange sunsets she _really_ struggled to look away from. They were akin to the swirling flames of a burning ocean, enkindled in a sea of blazing waves and enwreathed in golden shining crests.

How could she ever look away from that?

For those to open so close to her own, with her lips already so close to grazing the soft lips of her partner, she knew she would ultimately lose the internal struggle _not_ to close that distance.

But…

Arex closed her eyes again, trying to calm the throbbing of her heart.

She couldn't.

Not after last time.

She couldn't put Kitsuki through a risk like that. And that's not even taking account whether or not the girl before her was even remotely interested in girls at all.

Arex took a slow breath, silently letting it out in a soft sigh before thinking through her exit strategy again. The embarrassment in her irises switched to a deep, darkened blue, a color only drawn up from the emotions she actively repressed.

Even if a relationship was possible, Arex didn't want to hurt Kitsuki. She couldn't live with herself if she hurt anyone else again.

Not like last time.

Those dark blue eyes hardened in resolve for one fleeting moment, their gaze taking in the girl before her one more time before she slowly took in a new breath of air.

With it she tapped into her Affinity and slowly spanned out a heat across the surface of the bed beneath them, bringing it to a comforting wave of soothing warmth.

It was the best way she could trick Kitsuki's slumbering mind into thinking she was still in contact with Arex's body.

With that, the girl slowly lifted Kitsuki's sleeping frame up ever so slightly… then gently withdrew her flexible wing from beneath the girl's side. When she regained possession of her appendage, she reached down between her legs and started delicately slipping out of the confinement of Kitsuki's tails.

The soft fur and tiny twitches were a temptation too hard not to think about, but she pushed through those thoughts and finally pried one tail from its sealed grasp against the front of her panties.

That was the most dangerous of them all.

She reached for the second one that lay twirled around her leg, but as soon as she touched it, its furry tip rolled and flicked while the girl next to her shifted in her bed.

Arex froze.

Her eyes slowly turned to see Kitsuki curling into the area she just vacated by sitting up, the kitsune pulling the pillow she found there into her arms and clutching it to her chest. Two white fox ears mildly twitched and fluttered for a few more seconds…

Before even those grew still again and Kitsuki's breathing grew shallow and even.

Arex released the breath trapped in her throat and gently slipped out of the grasp of the last of Kitsuki's tails. With those out of the way, the winged girl untangled her sensitive legs from the toned, elegant limbs of her partner and flexed her wings.

She didn't want to shift the bed by crawling across it, so she pushed the morning air beneath them downward and lifted her light frame from her bed's covers. The temperature in the air in front of her suddenly rose to accommodate the movement of air, Arex changing it to create a small updraft to prevent any rushing wind from touching Kitsuki's light skin.

With that, she brought the hem of her blanket back up to Kitsuki's exposed shoulder and moved away, landing softly on the floor just before the foot of the bed.

It wasn't until then that she finally let out all the pent up breaths she'd been holding in and relaxed her shoulders.

Not a single strand of frost white hair on her partner's head was disturbed, thankfully. The updraft in the room died off a few moments later, the silence of the morning lingering ever more as she quietly padded her way over to the box of spare electronics that still lay on the floor.

She reached in and pulled out a backup black scroll, booting it up before standing again. She didn't want to stop the music playing from the one she left on the nightstand. The one Kitsuki was still listening to.

So, she started downloading the digital image of her scroll's playlists she kept online and re-imaged the stock scroll in her hand. While that was cloning, she made her way over to her dresser and pulled out a change of clothes, paired with a change of underwear as well.

As soon as she did, she opened up a new drawer and withdrew a clean black towel, taking it with her as she crossed the room and snuck past a sleeping Anoel in her own set of twin beds.

With a quiet click, she was inside the bathroom and leaning against the locked door. Her raven hair fell in strands before her still flushed face, but she didn't bother to brush them away.

What… what got into her last night?

Her bright eyes traced the dark room as she slowly slid down the closed door, sliding to the floor before resting her head back against its surface.

She didn't even hesitate…

When she got that message, she just bolted. She didn't even worry about people seeing her wings. She did a minor scan of her surroundings, but she didn't even think to do the same with her dormitory before rushing in and up the stairwell.

What if someone saw her?

What if someone… saw her wings? What then?

Black wings like these weren't indicative of any avian faunus race most would generally know. They weren't even akin to the wings possessed by the rarer of bird faunus across Remnant and its four kingdoms.

They were thin, sleek, their color as black as obsidian and as soft as an angel's feathers. They were hers… and they belonged to a race so close to extinction, she might as well be from the last bloodline that still lives.

It was a sport to hunt them by now.

Since when did the scientific community engage in the art of hunting subjects for experimentation…? She knew exactly when. But it wasn't just them.

The general community wasn't at fault.

After the fall of the lost fifth kingdom of Kerillor, in the southern oceans of Remnant, most of her race had already been killed off. Kerillor was their sanctuary, their new home.

But when that got destroyed, it took the majority of her race with it.

Now, over the countless years following Kerillor's destruction, her bloodline remained in hiding. But even then, the other lineages slowly dwindled and disappeared.

Anoel and Arex were all that was left of the Phoenix race… as far as they knew.

And yet, despite the fear of being exposed, she threw those thoughts aside to fly to her partner.

Sure, the hunts haven't taken place for a century now, especially due to her bloodline remaining perfectly hidden in the societies of the remaining four kingdoms. But… she was still incredibly apprehensive about her wings.

Even if no consequences arose from revealing them… there was still that small chance of sparking that insatiable intrigue in the DNA of her dying race.

However small it may have been, it was there.

And she's always been careful.

But last night?

She closed her eyes, her wings falling softly to the floor as she sat there in darkness. She didn't bother turning on the light when she walked in, leaving it off in the daze of her own thoughts.

The heart she could've sworn she'd locked up after her last experience beat rapidly in her chest, still running rampant from a few moments ago in her bed with her partner.

 _I… I can't…_ She couldn't feel that way. She promised herself she'd never feel that way ever again.

She had to at least try to keep that promise… for her partner's sake.

One of her wings reached up and flicked on the light, illuminating the room before her as she remained still. The beating of her heart began to finally calm down, lowering from its rampant elevation as she slowly opened her eyes.

She wanted that shower now. It was the best way to clear her fogged mind out of its mess of thoughts.

* * *

I was done with all the jobs I had available.

 _All_ of them.

In just one night, I completely well over 300 paid endeavors and racked up a stable profit as a result. That was my secondary objective. My main objective was burning time while I could.

But even that fell through.

I could stay in Vale… But there was something I couldn't ignore at Beacon.

A large brown bag of bagels lay clutched over my shoulder, the crunch of the material rapping solidly against my back as I walked down one of Vale's sidewalks.

Its direction easily led me to the airship docks to take me to Beacon. There, I'll just hitch a ride on top of one of the aircrafts.

It'll save me the trouble of jumping to Beacon physically.

Anoel and Arex both liked cinnamon bagels, so that made the purchase rather easy. Kitsuki on the other hand… I grabbed an assortment to try and make my best guesses. With any luck, she'd actually favor cinnamon as well, which meant all the extras I bought for the girls would pay off.

Not like lien mattered, anyway.

To my liking, the streets were fairly empty this early in the morning. The sun was still taking its time climbing the horizon over in the distance, so the light it threw down on the buildings around me was at least something intriguing to look at as I walked.

The only people around this early were a couple students from the Academy and a small plethora of people too strangled by their work to realize they were sleep deprived.

Unfortunately, Vale's workers haven't unionized yet so we could bring in monkey labor and make things easier on all of us.

It's a shame, really.

Monkeys come in all kinds of shapes and sizes. Like that white-haired carbon sandbag at Beacon, he'd do a great job with that kind of work.

Unless he was too privileged to do even that-

The sound of shattering glass and crumbling bricks suddenly ripped out into the quiet streets of Vale as a storefront exploded in front of me.

A rising dust cloud billowed out from the collapsing building as the black figure of a teen came crashing out of its structure. The person bounced and tumbled across the street before digging claws into the asphalt of the road, scratching themselves to a halt before hitting the sidewalk.

Of course… think of the devil, act like the devil, and lo and behold… he shall appear.

The usually white-haired carbon sandbag from Beacon now crouched on the street in front of me, looking like a discount black silhouette from an amateur anime that couldn't waste the effort to animate extras in the background.

Only, this thing was armored, had claws, and brimmed with glowing details.

All of which weren't worth the mental energy to describe.

"What the hell are you doing here?" I asked lowly, watching as his gaze quickly switched to me.

"U-Um… You must have me confused for someone else…"

He had the audacity to think I didn't recognize him… and _I_ had the restraint not to just deck him.

"Assuming that level of senseless ignorance of others can get you killed, Dante," I replied, watching as he stood straight up again and stared at me. But that stare soon snapped to the crumbling of bricks emerging from the destroyed storefront.

A new figure walked out. Probably the one who threw Dante through the store in the first place.

Damn… I wanted to congratulate him and give him lien for a job well-done.

The figure stepped out in a black cloak, a porcelain mask residing on his face resembling that of what he probably thought looked like a dragon. Most would agree.

Pale skin, shoulder-length decently messy black hair, heh… I'm actually caring to take in his appearance. He deserves at least that much for punching Dante through a building.

He wielded a bone-encased longsword, almost ancient yet still retaining a mortally lethal sharpness and a ferocious body of harrowing design and detailing. It was designed to rip into flesh and bone, to savagely cut down any foe that lay before him.

My lien's on him. But, unfortunately, the sandbag has armor now. So… he'll probably lose.

"You two on a date?" I asked, glancing between the two as their masked faces turned to regard me.

Dante just threw his arms in the air like he was innocent before pointing behind him, "Honestly, I just went out to buy milk when this guy came out of nowhere."

My eyes then leveled on dragon guy.

He just simply waved at me, "Hello there!"

I'll let the kiddies play.

With that, I started walking, "You two have fun. I hear ferry rides are quite romantic at these early hours of the morning."

"W-Wait, you're leaving?! You can at least help out a bit you know!" Dante attempted to get my attention, his glowing eyes turning to me again as I walked past him on my sidewalk.

"Not my problem," I replied.

The crunching of my brown bagel bag continued as I slowly left their vicinity.

"Thanks a lot you jerk!"

"Well, well…" I felt the dragon mask's eyes on me again as well as I waved over my shoulder, "He's certainly a strange fellow…"

"I'm not the one cosplaying a dead lizard in the middle of Vale." I let my voice carry itself to him as I left them behind, hearing a hearty laugh from him as I kept walking.

Now… I wonder if my team's hungry.

I bought a lot of bagels.

* * *

 **Niro's good mood is going to slowly get degraded down once again as he makes his way back to Beacon. But of course, like I said, he'll start to build an immunity to its poisonous air.**

 **So, over time, he'll act less and less angry. But until then, he shall remain Niro! This chapter helped show off his more... lenient, humorous, and easygoing side. He had a good night. Going anywhere near Beacon easily ruins that mood.**

 ***cleverly skirting around the whole segment involving Arex and Kitsuki in bed***

 **Heh… yeah, that was adorable. I hope.**

 **But I wanted to get something across. Arex is seriously repressing something. Like, majorly. So, whether or not she's actually developing anything for Kitsuki doesn't matter. To her, anyway.**

 **Until then, a certain sister has every intent to tease Arex to no end about it.**

 **For now,** _ **Favorite**_ **and** _ **Follow**_ **.**

 **I look forward to seeing** _ **REVIEWS**_ **for this. You'll be introduced to a LOT of concepts of mine. Feel free to give me your thoughts.**

 **Cya XP**


	21. Hack

Rogue Huntsman

Hack

«»

Draped wings lay drooped behind Arex's slim frame, steaming under the hot cascade of water flowing down her burning feathers. Whatever modest curves her body possessed received the same treatment as she stood beneath the shower of water.

Her music played from her scroll's speaker set up on the vanity next to the sink, the same playlist she selected for Kitsuki just last night. In fact… now playing was the same first song she played for the kitsune to help her sleep.

It was only reminding her of everything they did to get through the storm.

 _Of course this song comes up in rotation…_ Arex sighed, closing her eyes as she listened. Water continued to roll down her fanning feathers, slipping over her flat stomach and the smooth curves of her reserved body as she tried to keep her mind occupied.

 _Why wouldn't it?_

Straight, drenched raven locks swayed slightly as she shook her head, not even bothering to run through the probability of that happening.

It was far too small, given how many songs she has in that playlist.

The song played through like every other as she leaned her head against her hands, pushing the flow of water to her back and between her wings as she sighed.

Part of her wondered if Ruby finished working on Crescent Rose last night without her. Another part of her wondered what the reaper thought after she bolted…

But, she could say the same for herself there.

She really did drop everything and take off… didn't she…? She's only been in that kind of situation a few times in her life. But each time it happens, no matter how many times it did happen, the startling emotions remain. Yet, this time, she couldn't shake that one feeling away.

It only happened once before, but it was among the worst feelings she'd ever experienced… and that was being thrown into a situation, much like last night…

Only to make it in time to realize it was already too late.

A soft click suddenly caught her attention, though, drawing her from her bleary thoughts. She pulled her head back, cracking her eyes open to glance toward the noise.

It came from the door…

A door she was irrefutably certain was locked.

What followed was a hushed whisper as the door slowly opened, "Arex, I'm coming in!"

"A-anoel?" Arex quickly pushed away from the wall she was leaning against and gripped at the shower curtain, pulling it aside ever so slightly to peek her head out, "What are you doing?!"

"Currently?" the info-broker replied, slipping into the bathroom and closing the door behind her, "Just testing the security of these locks. Not as touchy as you'd think they'd be… I got in without really trying."

"T-that's… okay," Arex breathed out, fixing her sister with a hard stare, "Well, you tested it. Why are you on this side of the door now?"

"Oh, that's strange…" Anoel sighed loudly, placing her hands on her hips, "How _did_ I end up on this side?"

 _You've got to be kidding me…_

"One moment, I was in the bedroom. Then the next?" Anoel continued to fake confusion, staring at the door with a curious tilt of her slightly unkempt head, "I'm in the bathroom. Weird."

 _Not weird! You barged in here for a reason!_ Steam kicked up behind Arex as her affinity flared. Gentle flames licked at the cascade of water behind her as she puffed an exasperated breath at Anoel.

"Oh! I know why…" Anoel snapped her fingers and turned around, golden eyes immediately locking with Arex's burning orange irises, "I need a shower!"

"T-this one's occupied!" Arex retaliated, gripping the curtain tightly between her fingers.

"Really?"

"Yes!"

"I don't hear anything…" Anoel's cheeky grin slowly formed on her face, causing Arex's hardened gaze to falter in favor of quickly growing embarrassment.

It wasn't until Anoel _actually started taking off her pajamas_ when Arex's eyes widened and her cheeks flushed red. She immediately threw her head back inside the shower's confinement and whipped the curtain closed.

"Don't worry, Arex," Anoel spoke lightly, a small trace of amusement in her voice as the telltale sounds of soft fabric falling to the floor filtered into the room, "With how long it takes to wash our wings, this'll make two showers three times more efficient and four times more enjoyable. I'll be gentle too."

Arex's shoulders tightened up as she heard Anoel step her way to the shower's curtain, moving to the side furthest away from her. Her wings quickly reacted to the sound of the curtain shifting, and within half a second, Arex covered herself with a flourish of thin, black appendages.

Well… most of herself anyway.

The important bits.

"Awe, come on Arex, we're both girls here."

Anoel's voice was right behind her… the only sounds accompanying it being the two pads of feet stepping themselves into the shower behind her and the sound of the curtain drawing closed again.

"D-did you h-have to use such a cliché phrase?" Arex asked.

"Well, it's true isn't it?"

"Not the point…"

"Then what _is_ the point, Arex?" Anoel asked, her voice far too close now as a set of warm arms wrapped around Arex's partially covered waist.

"I-I…" She didn't know anymore…

"Hmm?" Anoel let her elegant chin fall on Arex's shoulder, leaving her silken voice just within a lip's touch of the other girl's ear, "Having trouble with your words?"

A shaky breath escaped Arex's lips as she nodded her head, "A-anyone would."

"But you're not anyone, Arex. This is only for you," Anoel replied, smiling lightly as she brushed her cheek against Arex's own.

"W-why are you here? J-just… just w-why?" Arex stuttered out.

"Ah, good question," Anoel brought her lips back and breathed softly against Arex's ear, the grip of her arms soon shifting ever so slightly as she leaned the two out of the spray of the water, "Did you and Kitsuki have sex yet?"

"W-what?!" Arex's whole back went stiff and her wings fanned out, leaving their protection from around her chastity in that one moment of shock.

It was all Anoel needed to let go for just a second, allowing those wings to unravel, before locking Arex back in her arms and pressing herself against her, "Or, you know, shared a kiss or three yet?"

"N-no… no! No we haven't!" Arex pushed forward slightly, but her sister's arms failed to budge under any movement at all.

Soon, those erected wings collapsed back down and draped to the floor of the shower, the redness burning in Arex's cheeks simmering down as well.

But the blush still remained.

"Nothing," Arex took a deep breath, breaking it into her lungs before letting it out in a shuddering exhale, "We did nothing. So please, don't ask that…"

"I wouldn't say 'nothing'. You two still spent some quality time together, even cuddled a bit. Don't think I didn't see where Kitsuki's tails were either little phoenix," Anoel chided, giving Arex's burning cheek a quick peck before resting her chin on the girl's shoulder again.

Another smile tugged at Anoel's lips as she felt the girl twist slightly in her arms, head turning away soon after.

"That was an accident."

"But climbing into that bed wasn't," Anoel countered, giving her little sister's waist a small squeeze, "You're improving."

"Improvement is relative…" Arex sighed, but Anoel only locked her chin to keep Arex's naked shoulder in place.

"Just because any progress is improvement doesn't mean all progress isn't _good_ improvement. You're finally getting over it."

"Getting over it is hard enough as it is."

"But you're getting there, and _that's_ what matters. You wouldn't have reacted the way you did if you weren't."

"Still, I just…"

Arex paused, her bright eyes closing in the heat of the shower as Anoel waited. The girl in her arms fell into a fit of her own thoughts for several moments, and just as Anoel was about to say something, she felt Arex's hands on her own.

Her sister gently pulled her locked hands away, pushing Anoel's arms open before turning around in her grasp.

It was then Anoel saw dark blue swirls in her sister's eyes… and it didn't take long for her playful countenance to fall at the sight of them.

She wasn't in here to tease Arex or interrogate her. She walked in on her because she knew she was hurting, even if she didn't own up to it herself.

Arex's delicate arms wrapped around Anoel's waist, something the elder sibling could claim as a rarity from her younger sister. But they pulled her in nonetheless as Arex placed her forehead against Anoel's central chest, just beneath her neck.

"I-I don't know what to do…" Arex breathed out, a winding tightness forming in the pressure of her own chest as she swallowed a lump in her throat, "I never have. I never will. I just… after all this time, I still don't know if I can…"

"If you can love someone again?" Anoel asked softly, placing comforting hands around the back of her shivering sister.

A meek nod was what she got in return before the voices in the shower fell silent.

"You're doing better than I could ever do…"

* * *

The crunch of my bagel bag was all I heard in the stale air of Beacon Academy's opening breeding grounds.

Pillars lined the courtyards of stone, trees and foliage ran through the gardens before the school's walls, and the potent smell of the lack of potential still permeated through the air like a plague.

Its stench was unmistakable…

I was back.

The sun rose in the distance as I passed through the opening gates of the Academy, the brushing winds and the smell of the lake far below disappearing in my wake as I walked.

This place was where nightmares were bred. But it was also a collection of sexually charged batteries looking to find new ways to use the 'magic' rushing through their veins.

Maybe try 'not becoming a tool'. I hear it works wonders.

The crunching of my bag continued as I followed the pathways to my dormitory building. Few students were around, most avoiding the pathway I walked on in looming fear of encountering their immediate death.

It wasn't that far off the mark… If they tried for my bagels, I wouldn't think twice about kicking them to the shattered fragments of the moon.

With any luck, they'd fall back down and impale themselves on the spear of Beacon's central spire.

It'd give our dear headmaster a nice little ornament to show off.

I doubted anyone would get in my way anyway, even if they _did_ directly see me.

"You _brought_ BAGELS?!" some short ginger gasped at the end of the pathway, snapping her gaze and nose to the brown bag slung over my shoulder.

Or… so I thought.

She dragged a lifeless ragdoll behind her. Some easterner with a ponytail- oh wait, it was the kid with twigs for guns.

I remember him.

Ren.

He was useless during initiation.

"Nora, please don't rush toward imminent doom like that," Ren pulled his hand free from Nora's tight grip, throwing both hands to his own knees as he bent over to catch his breath, "No offense, Niro."

"I'd be offended if you didn't think that," I muttered, giving the short girl a slanted gaze. She was _really_ short.

No wonder she could go from 0 to 180 from sugar alone.

"Oh, goodie, because we kinda _always_ think that," Nora replied, staring up into my harsh eyes with a happy morning stupor.

"It's a common consensus around here," Ren supplied unnecessarily.

Nicely done. You've pointed out the obvious. Here's a golden sticker.

Now go scratch and sniff it at the bottom of a pool.

"You should've said something about a bagel run! We could've pitched in a little lien for something for our team too," Nora complained, switching her energetic gaze to the bag dangling at my back.

"Forcing your work onto others for the sake of lien? How cruel," I commented, watching as her face recoiled in momentary regret for her choice of words.

"What she meant to say was more along the lines of a request-"

"You don't have to defend her words," I interrupted, switching my eyes to Ren and seeing his own string of thoughts come to a halt, "Most people would say the same thing."

Most people weren't evolved past the 'senseless purpose' phase yet in life. It makes you wonder what'd happen if everyone thought about their short lifespans every night before they fell asleep.

The world would be a happier place.

"Listen, the reason why we're up and about so early isn't for breakfast," Ren slowly began to speak again, pausing for a moment when I looked over to him.

Captain obvious strikes again. Here's another sticker.

"We're… kind of looking for someone," Nora supplied, giving her thin neck a small rub as she smiled meekly up at me.

"A friend, if you've seen her," Ren continued, "She has black hair, a black bow tied atop her head, amber eyes, pale complexion. You probably remember her from initiation."

"I told her to sit in a corner."

"Right…" Ren was about to say something else, but he quickly rearranged his thoughts, "Did you see her on your way back from Vale?"

"If I told you what I saw on my way back from Vale, I doubt it'd be believable to either of you. Well, maybe you," I glanced to Nora, who now stood back at Ren's side as she shifted on the balls of her feet, "but not you."

My gaze then returned to Ren. He managed to compose himself now. His breathing had been evened out, his stance tall again, and his visage and stature perfectly relaxed in the wake of this early morning.

"Anything at all might help us locate her," he reaffirmed, trying to at least get something out of me.

Try this one, easterner.

"I saw a drug addict leap out a window to smoke the clouds, 39 males too stuck up in their own labors to realize they weren't living, 67 females in the same regard, 13 open storefronts, and 9 open cafes. Lastly, I saw a dragon tussling with a white sandbag."

My eyes watched the two before me carefully, seeing both of them remain unblinking and staring after I finished listing off the short list I wanted to disclose to them.

I didn't mention the triple homicide on the southern side of Vale, the small Grimm attack at the north-western villa nearby, the robbery of a Dust store in the main market district of the city, or even the two-for-one sales prices on bagels at Café Royale.

All of that took place in the few hours of daylight I strolled through on my way back to the academy.

Yet, it was still only taking into account a fraction of the events I noticed on my return.

"Did you say dragon?" Nora asked.

"In Vale?" Ren added.

"Yeah. He was rather short, scrawny too, had a jagged toothpick in his grabby hand. Can't remember the color of his scales, he was cloaked in black," I elaborated, staring indifferently at the two before me.

"And… the sandbag?" Nora questioned.

"Worn, leaking sand, padded with new armor, and someone drew a stupid face on it to make it easier to punch."

They remained silent after that, so I took my leave there.

"If you find that girl, tell her I approve of her actions. I'd run away from this place too… if I could," I commented with a small smile. She made a good decision.

Too bad nobody else was as smart as her.

"S-she didn't run away!"

Something gripped my sleeve, a small moment of physical contact that should've been met with enough heat and aura to burn the opposing flesh asunder.

But I held back.

Instead, I cast my gaze down and to my left side, staring down at the redheaded girl keeping me from leaving.

"Her team had a small falling out. She's just lost, and we just want to help. She didn't run away." The grip of her fingers soon loosened as her gaze dipped further, lowering with the fall of her head against her chest.

Then she stepped back.

"Running away isn't simply the idea of abandoning what you know behind you," I said, pulling my bagel bag from over my shoulder and holding it at my side, "It's the abandonment of the people you knew as well. So, if she truly wanted to leave this life behind, she wouldn't be sitting downtown in the café on 34th street across from a golden monkey."

"You saw her?" Ren asked.

I could feel both of their gazes snap to me. It was an uncomfortable feeling.

"They're there now. So if you want to catch them, I suggest hurrying," I informed, resuming my steps forward again as I felt the two turn and take off toward the docks.

They didn't bother with thanks.

Good. I hated the concept of gratitude.

* * *

The bag of bagels lay half eaten on their small kitchen table, most of the cinnamon variants missing from the assortment Niro had gathered for the team.

As it turns out, Kitsuki happened to like those the best. So, she was just another cinnamon bagel lover to add to the list for next time. If there was a next time, anyway.

The girl in question was awake and nibbling on a toasted bagel with cream cheese, working her way through the breakfast treat with a plate next to her on her bed. Her eyes remained on Arex's scroll, music still playing through the headset newly settled over her ears as she sifted through the playlist on it.

The events of last night almost seeming forgotten.

She was taking a liking to most of the songs listed, finding none she actually didn't like so far. She'd listened to about a ninth of the playlist by now, having countless more songs to go despite the playlist cycling through overnight.

Anoel was still in minor disbelief about Niro being back so early from his supposedly 'weekend long' endeavor into Vale.

His excuse was that he ran out of jobs to do. But she knew better than to believe that.

Unfortunately, there weren't any other believable reasons for him to be lying in his bed right now, black hat over his eyes and boots kicked up and crossed on the foot of his mattress.

It didn't matter, in the end. The info-broker still happily lay on her own bed, freshly showered and in a new set of clothes for the day. Her hat sat on the bedpost while her scroll played through a movie in her hand, its audio filtering through the same black earbuds she used in the hallway last night.

Her other hand held a separate scroll.

Niro's.

She was using it to sift through forums as she watched, connecting herself through to members of her information network as she scanned around for anything of interest. Being well-informed was the first step of being successful.

Well, that was what the successful would tell you.

In actuality, being well-informed was her version of fun. And her _fun_ was a way to earn money.

Success played no part in the throes of her own enjoyment.

Her eyes were sifting through old Sentinel attacks and reading through the live list of targets it had online. It was nearing eleven names now. Most of the names listed were companies treating their workers, almost entirely faunus, to low wages and heavy workloads.

Others had much less savory reputations to the public. It made sense for people to upvote those kinds of corporations.

But the selfishness of people when given power felt so predictably annoying.

Sparrow was on the list.

No claims were made against her of any kind of injustice at all. The forger's name was simply on the upvoted list because people wanted information on her. Anything about her appearance, her real name, even a potential address or age.

People were trying to get Sentinel to break in and release that kind of information.

Anoel watched as the live list updated in front of her, seeing Sparrow's name transition up one slot after receiving activity over a new post into the forging community. The name at the top of the list, holding the record for leading position in the most hated and upvoted companies across Remnant, was the Schnee Dust Company.

That much wasn't surprising.

Calm, dark green eyes sifted back down through the list. Most of the other names were just more companies to add to the bandwagon of 'things that needed to change'.

Despite the list updating under a live feed, though, Anoel couldn't pry out any potential reasons why a member of Sentinel would infiltrate Beacon Academy.

It made no sense.

With so much power and money, why attend a school, much less integrate into it? Beacon's never been an interest for cyber attacks. In fact, it's avidly avoided by the freelancer group. All of the academies were.

So, why change?

Those calm irises then saw the list before her update again, dropping from eleven names to ten.

 _Was a name taken off?_ Anoel's eyes scanned the list again. When an organization was attacked, its name was brought up to the top of the list and separated from the other names. Most of Sentinel's visuals were meant to be theatric.

It kept the public playing into its hand and taking part in its grand game of global equalization.

But… no name was moved.

Her eyes quickly slipped down the page of upvoted names before reaching the bottom.

Sparrow's name was gone…

Anoel's gaze immediately snapped over to her sister, the younger girl's eyes focused on a disassembled scroll on her shared desk with Kitsuki.

Its internal parts were organized across its flat wooden surface, most of its circuitry removed, and small flashes of white light emanated from the motherboard she was focusing on as she soldered new pieces into place with the tip of a thin, iron-plated copper wire.

Small streams of smoke slipped into the air above her, but those were ushered through their partially open window as she worked.

 _Why would Sentinel remove Sparrow's name from the list?_ They never managed the list themselves. They were adamant to leave it to the public, only targeting what was worth attacking among the most popular upvoted titles.

Nothing was ever removed.

A small movement of white stole her vision away from Arex's working form. Anoel's worried gaze switched to Kitsuki as the girl crawled across the beds, sitting at the edge nearest to Arex before tugging the girl's sleeve.

 _No…_

The kitsune looked worried, confused. Her delicate eyebrows lay scrunched up as she stared down at the scroll in her hands.

Arex's scroll.

The headphones around Kitsuki's ears soon fell around her neck as Arex looked up, wondering what her partner wanted her attention for.

That was when Kitsuki showed the forger her scroll…

It was black screened.

"What's wrong?" Arex asked, eyeing her scroll before looking up to see Kitsuki's confused gaze. The music had stopped, but something else took over.

The sound of a cascade of crystalline characters and filtering code suddenly emanated out of the speakers on Arex's scroll. A raining endless wall of flashing golden symbols fell down the blackened screen Kitsuki was holding up to Arex.

 _No… they couldn't be…_

Those symbols soon cleared out at the center, the middle of the screen going empty as a softly blinking cursor appeared at its left.

"Hello little bird."

A female voice slipped through the seams of Arex's speakers, the flashing cursor shooting across the black screen as three words appeared in tandem with the voice.

 _Why? Why were they…?_

Arex quickly took the scroll into her hands and stared down at it, the colors of her eyes flashing through an entourage of emotions before settling on a worried dark blue. Three times… they flashed white.

That color alone was enough for Anoel to throw herself from her bed and grab her boots.

Then the voice started up again and the cursor moved further across the screen.

"What's a sparrow like you doing in a place like Beacon Academy?"

"Arex, stay here. I'm finding this asshole," Anoel slipped her boots on and threw a jacket over her shoulder, yanking the door open before disappearing into the hallway.

That member she was informed about by Ozpin was forwarding a direct connection to Arex's scroll, allowing Sentinel to hack into it.

She was going to scour every lab in Beacon to break that.

A writing prompt soon appeared for Arex to respond, but she stayed quiet. Few several more stiff seconds, the room was stifled in a deafening silence. She didn't know what to do…

This was a personal attack. She'd only taken part in the defense of companies she'd been hired by in order to help counter the infamous hacker group. Several contracts were even turned down by her due to her own moral boundaries.

The rest was for contacts and lien to help her get by.

But this?

Her eyes stared blankly at the flashing cursor before her, waiting for some form of response as the scroll's screen shook in her hands. Her nerve-wracked fingers were just as tense as her back, the heart in her chest pounding in her ears as her mind sped up its own tempo.

Then the cursor moved again… and the digital, feminine voice spoke out once more.

"Nevertheless, it's easy to distinguish you from the rest of them. Hard to determine if you're a fake or the real Sparrow. Would you care to fancy a small game of hide and seek?"

If she responded… what… what would happen? Could she stall it out? Could she single-handedly block out an entire organization of hackers? The same hackers infamous for tearing companies down from the inside across Remnant's four kingdoms?

Would not responding only make things worse?

Arex's shaky fingers rattled, but she repressed her nerves as best she could before responding.

"There's only ever been one sparrow."

Sentinel's response was almost immediate.

"We'll find out…"

And then her screen went red with an alert.

Her first firewall had already been breached.

* * *

 **As you can see, Blake took off a bit early. Additionally, Ren and Nora are playing their roles on finding her. It's assumed Jaune and Pyrrha are doing the same. Things have… changed?**

 **Of course they have. Everyone's mood, behavior, and choices have been affected by the events that have already taken place and the new characters already met.**

 **Oh… this'll be fun.**

 **On another note, Sentinel's attacking Sparrow/Arex. I wonder why.**

 **For now,** _ **Favorite**_ **and** _ **Follow**_ **.**

 **I look forward to seeing** _ **REVIEWS**_ **for this. You'll be introduced to a LOT of concepts of mine. Feel free to give me your thoughts.**

 **Cya XP**


	22. Source

Rogue Huntsman

Source

«»

Arex was a nervous wreck.

Her trains of thought were crashing, each cart jumping the rails left and right and barely leaving her any room to hang on to the ideas she was already struggling to formulate.

Her mind was hardly starting up in any regard and her hands were shaking far too incessantly to even begin to type anything away at the digital keyboard across the bottom of her scroll's screen.

She knew what to do, she's done this before, but this attack felt personal, far more personal than any of the companies she's worked contracts for to play a hand in defending against Sentinel. This was different.

This _felt_ entirely different.

The pit in her stomach dropped even further when she received a second notification drowned in bright red.

Her second firewall was just breached.

Alarms were already blaring in her head, she didn't need them brightening her screen too. She quickly shut out of those notifications and bypassed most of the graphical displays of her scroll.

She linked herself straight into the core of her code and… and just stared…

Her hands were still shaking.

She needed to settle her nerves somehow. She needed to take a breath, calm down, find a way to get a clear head and-

Another alert flashed before her eyes. Another firewall fell.

She had some of the most advanced software even remotely possible! She spent years writing it, even longer customizing it to differentiate it from any other software on the planet, and continuously spends her time every day actively updating it to keep it out of the technological Meta's reach.

How was she supposed to fend off an entire organization of undefeatable hackers…?

"I can't do this…"

Arex's voice was hardly above a whisper, softly ushering from her almost quivering lips as she watched a fourth firewall fall. She couldn't do anything.

Not against that.

It was impossi-

The crunch of a bagel bag shot into the room like a crack of thunder in a barren sky.

Her entire attention snapped to the noise, gaze whipping behind her and eyes seeking out the source as soon as her nerve-wracked mind caught wind of it.

Niro was at the table… casually eating a bagel.

For a split second, even if it was just a passing moment, the lime green eyes beneath the shadow of Niro's cowboy hat met hers… and her whole body locked up.

Death suddenly challenged her, and she couldn't tear her gaze away.

Her body stayed locked up until his momentary glance turned back to his bagel, all control flooding back to her in a single rush of all her senses.

In that small moment, her lungs dispelled the tense air clamped inside her tight chest and slowly began to fill with a new breath of revitalizing oxygen.

A breath she _really_ needed to take.

 _Just… just calm down… you can do this. You can adapt to this._ Arex knew this task wasn't impossible. She knew, to every extent, how far her abilities reached.

If she settled down and truly focused, she could fend this attack off. She just needed to set her mind to it, suppress her surroundings, and start churning through the code she needed to in order to change and counter the advances of the intruding force.

She just needed to kick herself into high gear and do it.

With the alert of a fifth firewall dropping, Arex brought her gaze back to her bed and shook her hair frantically in one final measure to help with her nerves. Raven locks cascaded over her vision for a moment, but she brushed them away just before she pulled herself from her chair and climbed over her bed in a rush.

The phoenix quickly crawled her way past Kitsuki and maneuvered over the expanses of both sets of sheets.

She dropped her scroll onto her mattress behind the kitsune and leaned over the other side of her personal bed, reaching into her box of backup tech accessories and withdrawing another scroll from it.

She quickly expanded it and leaned back onto her bed, pushing her lower back against the headrest and pillow behind her before placing the second scroll down flat on the mattress in front of her crossed legs.

Its screen quickly flashed on and she synced it to her alerted scroll, a keyboard soon filtering across the holographic display in a faded LED setup of keys.

As soon as she was laid out, she went to work on shutting Sentinel out and began fabricating her fluctuating network of direct and indirect countermeasures.

She needed to be cunning and complex if she was going to pull this off…

And if Niro's presence in the room was enough of an incentive to force her to give this her all, she was damn well sure she was going to give these hackers a run for their bottomless lien.

* * *

Anoel was running through the halls of Beacon in a wavering wake of dispersing heat. She was irritated, a _very_ dangerous chord strumming oh so loudly in her body at the prospect of someone directly attacking her little sister.

She had every intent to burn whoever it was allowing Sentinel to hack into her sister's scroll alive and reduce them to nothing more than pitiful ash, erasing their existence from the world of the living.

They didn't just have the nerve to taunt Arex… they had the balls to step up to her, call her out on something she had _no control_ over, and then hack her for it with no other reason but a _game_.

This was a low blow on all accounts, and they had no reason to be putting Arex through _any_ of this.

Ohohoho… when she gets her hands around this person's neck, she was going to show them what it felt like to swallow the condensed core of a blazing sun.

Another door came crashing in as Anoel kicked her way into another scroll lab, scaring the drowsiness out of the few students actually using the setup of scrolls inside as she glanced around.

Nothing… Another bust.

She tightened her fists and moved on.

* * *

Arex swept her delicate fingers across the digital display at her legs, dragging a glowing line across it before rapidly flashing through a movement of keys across her scroll's keyboard to counter another move her opponent made before her.

She was eight firewalls down.

That was eight layers of her code, shattered in the wake of Sentinel's piercing golden eye…

But she was working steadily to both block and shut out certain attempts they made to get into even more reaches of her system. She was effectively locking down large portions of her interior information, cutting certain attacks off by forcing those areas to go off the grid.

In doing so, she transferred and deleted those databanks of memory after filtering them into external storage units sitting next to her. Modified fiber optic cables spanned across her bed, meaning there was no feasible way any piece of the hardware could be hacked remotely.

It was an insurance policy… just in case.

While those were transferring, she was hard at work dancing her fingers through strings of code she was drawing from experience alone. She was even forced to write newly formatted structures and completely inverted statements just to be unpredictable…

But above all else, she needed to be fast.

She didn't know how, but she was nearly matching Sentinel's speed in its attempts to break through her security. She was keeping pace…

At least, for the time being.

Her frantic mind was much more focused and narrowed now, forgetting about how many government contracts she actually had stored in the memory of her encrypted scroll. Her reputation as Sparrow wasn't just for the general public.

It was forged for that reason at the start, but she wasn't going to turn down high-ranking officials across the Kingdoms of Remnant when they approached her about project opportunities and funds.

Those were what she was worried about. And in hindsight, those were probably exactly what Sentinel was after.

Even if she made sure none of her designs could be weaponized.

A flash of red caught her eye once again, but all she could do was internally sigh and keep pushing forward.

Another firewall just fell… that made nine.

She only had five more.

Her methods were working, slowing Sentinel in its advance, but she doubted she could fully stop what was happening. There was no way she could at this point… with any luck, Sentinel would back off and move on.

But that thought was as passing as a midnight train in a Grimm infested forest. It would stop at nothing short of its destination.

She solved her memory overflow problems each time they arrived by hardcoding limits into how much each of her locations of memory could store. Those overflows would've made Sentinel's attack all the easier, so she was doing everything she could to stall it and ultimately stop it.

Fully stopping it, though…

She was slowly beginning to realize how much of a pipedream those words really were.

How little of a chance she really had at stopping the attack from bypassing every layer of security she'd built up over all the years she'd dabbled in the digital world…

Crushed in a single day.

But, something felt off.

Sentinel's attacks on companies were widespread, targeting, and unequivocally ruthless in what it dug through and unveiled to the world. It spared nothing, and in doing so, left obliteration in its digital wake for whatever prey it descended on.

This felt so much more direct.

It wasn't just straightforward, it was telegraphed. As if, with each move it made, it was seeing what she'd do to counter. Like a game of chess, only with a digital world as its board and every character involved was a power piece with limitless potential.

It was a game… and she wasn't leading it.

Through the layers of countermeasures she was building up, she began to slowly catch wind of something she'd never seen before in a Sentinel raid.

There was a trace of an IP Address…

 _No way… Sentinel wouldn't be this sloppy…_

Sentinel routed its signal through every scroll in Vale whenever it made a full-fledged attack on a company to keep its source from being traced. It took countermeasures and laced those backup tactics with insurance policies coated in the finest of extricated obscurities.

It was a phantom that knew how to devour the physical world.

Only, this time… Arex was picking up the signal of a scroll.

She immediately started tracking it, sacrificing some of her frontal assault in favor of following the digital trail of her attacker.

Maybe if she found the source, she could shut the rest of the organization out. That was her way of stopping this… that was her way of keeping Sentinel from going any further with her.

She piggybacked the signal and backtracked it, rushing through the bounced locations of three IP Addresses throughout the expanse of Beacon Academy.

Arex jumped through a scroll listed under Yang Xiao Long's name, then traced the signal even further through another registered to one Jaune Arc. She didn't know why theirs were being used as focal points of Sentinel's triangulated source signal, but they were.

The last scroll the signal was fed through was Coco Adel's… before she finally reached something encrypted.

The signal stopped at a blocked IP Address. Every piece of its identity was blank.

Usually, when something was encrypted, it could be uncovered and tapped into. It could eventually be deciphered and read. But… this ID… was completely blank.

All she had was the origin of the source.

Three more firewalls fell in the time she managed to trace the signal.

She only had two-

Another flashing alert told her of the breach of one more wall.

She only had one left.

Arex went into overdrive with her thoughts and split her focus, decrypting the location of the source signal while fending off the final attacking moves of Sentinel as she shoved every last effort she could into supporting her last firewall.

Segments of her code were cracking. The structural integrity of her final wall was slowly breaking under the pressure of her opposition, fracturing in targeted locations throughout her entire data structure before collapsing into pieces one by one.

The layers of her final block of code were failing…

But she nearly had it.

Her frantic fingers shot across the keyboard in front of her, rapidly forcing a ping through the signal she found to be the source and picking up its location through a network of proximity based sensors she just hacked into.

Those sensors were the scrolls of Beacon Academy students. She needed to borrow them, just for the time being. The net of sensory devices worked like an intricately spun web of silver strands, springing to life at the subtlest twitch of a ping she forwarded through the source signal.

Arex triangulated the received information through Beacon's most updated architectural blueprints and used the sensors to map out the signal's exact location down to the precise square inch of its residence.

"There!" Arex grabbed her scroll and opened up its smaller, integrated keyboard to keep her last firewall from collapsing in on itself.

She repaired and reinforced as much as she could as she got to the door to her dorm and yanked it open, stumbling out into the hallway before throwing her gaze around.

Her scroll was directing her forward to the source…

It was… within five meters of her? No, that couldn't be right.

Her method to triangulate the signal was accurate, incredibly so. It was the most efficient way to find the precise location of a digital entity, there was… no way it could've been wrong…

Arex's eyes fell to the door across the hall.

 _They… they have to be in there…_ Dark green eyes stared through the disheveled black bangs drifting in front of her.

Her warm skin sheened in a thin layer of cold, nervous sweat, making her pale skin almost shine in the light of the hallway she crossed. Kitsuki stood in Arex's wake as the girl moved forward, worriedly watching as the phoenix swiped her fingers across her scroll once and listened to the resulting sound of a dismantling lock emanate from the door in front of them.

The black haired girl moved without thinking, pushing her way into the door with a swift turn of the handle and throwing the whole entryway open with a desperate urgency.

The attack on her scroll suddenly ceased… leaving her final firewall cracked, splintered, almost falling to pieces… but still just barely intact.

Down to her last line of encrypted programming.

Arex's eyes immediately scanned the room ahead of her, looking for anything that would even slightly resemble a setup built for the purpose of routing an entire organization through a keyhole of funneled signals.

Her eyes immediately fell to the first bed in sight, dark green irises skimming past a girl halfway beneath the covers of the bed she slept on. She glanced past the red t-shirt the girl was wearing and the barely visible pale leg slipped out of the disheveled covers bunched up over her softly curved hip.

The rest of the beds were completely empty, two cleanly made while one was only slightly cleaned up.

Her eyes then scanned the desk to the immediate left of the door, finding only papers stacked neatly at its far right and a couple textbooks resting on its surface.

She didn't bother to take in the rest of the contents residing on the desk itself and tore her gaze to the right, clearing half the room in a single sweep before stepping inside and checking the other half…

Only to meet the amethyst eyes of a boy staring at her inquisitively from beneath his violet beanie. Blindingly golden strands of hair slipped out from the hem of his hat, and he wore just a casual white t-shirt and blue jeans.

All he had in front of him… was his scroll… and a glass of orange juice.

"You took your time..."

His voice was monotone, sonorous, imposingly deeper than any normal voice and entirely uncaring. The amethysts he had for eyes gave her a once over before returning to her own irises, which were quickly transitioning between a plethora of colors.

She was silent for a while… more confused than anything else. This was him. It had to be.

"W-why?" she stammered out, one hand still tightly grasping the door handle while the other held her black scroll open at her side.

"Many reasons, none of them hostile, I assure you."

 _None of them… hostile? Really?_ A look of disbelief passed over Arex's face and through her shining eyes, irises drifting into light yellow and burning red, swirling together to form a combination of confusion and… irritation.

"If… it wasn't hostile," Arex slowly led on, her lightly flickering sunsets for eyes refusing to look away from the one before her, "then why was I attacked?"

"Attacked? Trust me, if this was an attack, you would know. I just needed your attention."

"My… attention…" Arex breathed out, still trying to grasp at some sort of _real_ reason behind all this.

The boy sighed. "You _can_ come in, you know. Clearly we have a lot to talk about. Oh _,_ and please shut the door."

He pointed his thumb in the direction of the girl sleeping as he leaned back in his seat.

"She's been up all night, so don't wake her up."

Arex's eyes fell on the girl again, watching as she pulled her blanket up further to cover her bare shoulder. Those eyes then turned back into the hallway, meeting Kitsuki's eyes as the kitsune stood in their own doorway.

She looked equally but she silently signed something out.

" _Want me to come with you?"_

Her partner looked as confused as she felt herself, but Arex softly shook her head with an appreciative smile and eventually turned her gaze back to the boy inside.

Sentinel wanted her attention for some reason. A reason she had no idea the purpose of or if it really wasn't as hostile as he claimed it to be.

"Or, you can stand there looking idle and confused."

The grip Arex held on the door slowly loosened as she took a silent breath, throwing a meek look back to Kitsuki once more before she finally let go of the door.

Her view of her partner in white disappeared as she stepped inside and let the door swing closed.

She didn't want to drag Kitsuki into this.

"Do you want some orange juice? We have crackers, if you like those. Maybe-"

"Could you at least tell me why Sentinel wants my attention?" Arex asked, staying by the door for the time being.

"You're mistaken if you think the entirety of Sentinel is involved. Half of them couldn't care less about you. Personally, I'm the one responsible for this meeting." He took a single sip from his orange juice before continuing, "You may want to take a seat."

 _Explains why their hack lasted for so long and why it wasn't so overwhelming… but…_ Arex still wasn't sure how she was supposed to feel about all this, let alone address it.

Eventually, she quietly made her way over to the desk behind her, mirroring the boy's own, and pulled out the chair there.

"Then what's your game here. Why did you start this?" Arex asked, carefully taking her seat in the foreign room and resting her elbows on her legs.

She was tense, still tense from the attack, but now she was pushing herself through a quickly spanning array of discomforts. She was never comfortable around strangers to begin with, but knowing this one was capable of so much destruction over the digital domain only fueled the pressing thoughts of just leaving.

But… leaving meant never knowing why she was attacked, even after evading the ire of the group of freelance hackers from the beginning.

She was staying for answers.

"This 'game' as you put it, is simply because I needed to talk to you. I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm not exactly in any position to leave this room without assistance. Honestly, I would've just left and found you myself if it weren't for my crippling fatigue."

Arex finally noticed the small twinges of pain the boy was under every time he made any small movement. She couldn't see it visibly, but she could glimpse the white fabric of bandages and wrappings encompassing most of his body beneath his t-shirt.

"You were in the Hydra fight…" she realized.

"Unfortunately."

He put himself in danger for the sake of the school, or at least for the sake of those fighting the Hydra after she tried to take it on herself.

She always viewed Sentinel as an organization of ghosts hell-bent on bringing ruin to the companies across the world they didn't agree with. Whether they were morally wrong, exploited the public as a whole, or were corrupt in any small way.

Their aims were always in favor of the people, but she always assumed there was some amount of cynicism behind the mask of Sentinel, however vastly it spanned.

She wasn't getting that vibe from this boy… at least, not yet.

"You're just… not what I expected from a member of Sentinel."

"Look who's talking. A genius inventor and a hacker? You? I'm honestly surprised. No offense, of course."

 _No offense…_ Arex was a little taken aback by that, but her eyes quickly fell deeper into the red as she felt a heat of annoyance pass over her skin.

"Am I not what you expected of the _great_ Sparrow?" she asked with a roll of the eyes, honestly a little peeved that the name she claimed even adopted any kind of preconceived notion of what to expect.

"No, but am I what you expected of a member of the largest hacker organization in the world? It's a two-way street you know."

He had her there, but she knew the point still stood between both of them, "I guess not, but you're still pushing aside my first question. Why did you want my attention?"

"Because unlike most of Sentinel, I'm actually a fan of your work. I _was_ the one that removed your name from our list. That makes it five times this week."

Arex let out a tightly held breath there, knowing how often her name actually gets upvoted even though she fit none of the criteria of what Sentinel actually stood for, "My name's on there more than I'd honestly ever like it to be. I still don't know why either… but I guess I have you to thank for keeping it off the list."

"I'm tempted to place a block on your name coming up. It's becoming a chore to scroll through the thing every day just to see you there, placed somewhere in the top ten. We all know you're completely innocent, hence the removal. As you may know, we don't actively manage the list, that's what bots are for."

"Please, do…" The public, no matter how many different tools you give them, oftentimes exploited a system to get what they wanted. Even if what they wanted had no real reason other than shared curiosity… or something worse. "But if they know I'm not a threat at all, why are you here? And why did you go after me?"

He kept dodging the question, and that was starting to get a little on Arex's nerves.

"You want the honest truth? I need a favor. I'm stuck here with no contacts and those that are in Vale have gone dark. To see you connected to the local network was both a surprise and a blessing."

Arex slowly slid her scroll closed, resting it on the desk next to her as she finally felt some of the tenseness in her back and shoulders dwindle away.

"Was all this really necessary for a favor?"

"I had to be sure I was exposing my identity as a member of Sentinel to someone who knows how to keep a secret. I can't just automatically assume you were the real Sparrow, only for you to turn out to be a fake and doom myself. Hence the reason behind the hack, if you were a fake, I would have found out instantly and still remained hidden."

Arex gently rested her head in her hands for a few seconds. There were so many easier ways to do this… for all she knew, he got some sort of high from hacking her. He's part of an organization that makes its living from breaking into companies digitally and wreaking havoc.

"An average scroll doesn't have as much security as mine does… wouldn't that alone have given it away?"

He held his hands up admittedly, "Okay, I _did_ get a little carried away after the first few firewalls, but you have to understand that such a challenge could not be ignored for someone who hacks for a living. You have my sincerest apologies."

She'd forgive him at another time. Right now, she _really_ didn't feel like accepting that kind of apology.

"And now you expect me to give you a favor… after attacking me…?"

"In hindsight, it wasn't the _greatest_ idea I've had, but it was too tempting to just give up. If you're saying no to the favor, then I completely understand, but say it was business… Even you know that Sentinel sits on a lot of money."

"You already know that I accept contracts," Arex sighed, finally leaning back in her chair, but it was more out of exasperation than comfort, "But you also know that I pick my partners in business carefully, if you know anything about me by now. What kind of favor are we talking about?"

"I need processors, powerful ones. I already have the schematics for them, I just need someone to build them for me. As for picking your partners carefully, this'll be a cash-in-hand job with no record whatsoever."

The no record helped. She personally tried to keep away from any ties with organizations she personally didn't agree with. She had her own sets of what was morally right and what was morally wrong, even if large sums of money were offered as payment.

But for this… she already knew where Sentinel stood morally. That helped at least back her response, but she also figured this wasn't for the group at all.

It was likely a personal endeavor, something the boy needed rather than the entire organization.

"How much?"

"Name your price."

"I don't like naming prices," Arex returned.

"I can start from anywhere between ten thousand and ten million. Makes no difference to me."

 _Ten million?! What the hell does he think this is worth?_ "Am I buying the materials?"

"You can source them yourself, or I can have them delivered to you in a gift basket. Your choice."

"I prefer sourcing them myself. You'll need to fund the expenditures, but otherwise," Arex grabbed her scroll and stood up, not wanting to draw this out much longer if this was all he wanted from her, "I'll build it for you. You… already have my scroll's information. Just send the schematics my way."

She quietly glanced to the door, pausing for a moment before wrapping this all up.

"We'll decide on a price after the finished product. That's usually how I prefer to do things. What should I call you?"

"Beanie kid, asshole… Whatever you feel like. As for my name, it's Ray."

The phoenix nodded slightly, remembering the name given before glancing back to the door, "Arex."

"Pleasure to meet your acquaintance, Arex. I'll be in tou-"

All stillness in the room shattered as the door to Ray's dorm warped and bent inward, searing heat billowing through the rapidly forming cracks before its locking mechanism broke and the whole thing swung open in a burst of a raging inferno.

A blaze of twin embered irises smoldered beneath the black rim of a cowboy hat as Anoel strolled inside, her strands of raven hair trailing in pale burning hazes as her gaze slowly leveled on the two inside the room.

"A-anoel?"

Anoel's gaze slowly turned to Ray, and for the first time since Arex had seen him, the lights in his eyes flickered and he displayed his first actual emotion.

He was terrified.

"Oh fuck…"

* * *

 **XD, that was literally just a passing glance from Niro. It was so overwhelming, despite being just a casual note of recognizing Arex's existence, the poor girl interpreted it as staring into the embodiment of Death itself.**

 **It was enough to stir her into taking action. Good job Niro! Who happens to just be casually eating a bagel while Arex's whole world is crashing down around her…**

 **Readers, meet Ray. Ray, meet anyone who happens to be reading RH.**

 **Ray: "They've already seen me and my clingy pest by now. If they're not stupid."**

 **Fair enough.**

 **Ray and his 'clingy pest' *cough* partner *cough* (who will be revealed later) are created and owned by '** **HydraFlow** **', another author here on FFN. He's also starting up his own story, which is actually debuting once this chapter's released.**

 **It'll be his characters' perspectives of all the events that happen here and his own endeavors in the world of RH.**

 **Sounds like fun, right? Like, wtf was everyone thinking when Niro and Anoel set the Emerald Forest ablaze? Or how the Hydra fight resolved?**

 **Additionally, another author's doing the same.**

' **andy2396** **' is writing his own perspective as well with his characters (Dante, Inuba, Ciel, and Leo). This world has expanded… it seems… huh…**

 **It won't detract from the overall story or my characters. We're all going to do this in our own separate ways, but they'll be following the events of this story nonetheless.**

 **So, RH is still in control.**

 **Their stories, respectively, are "Lost in Binary" and "Knights of White and Black".**

 **For now,** _ **Favorite**_ **and** _ **Follow**_ **.**

 **I look forward to seeing** _ **REVIEWS**_ **for this. You'll be introduced to a LOT of concepts of mine. Feel free to give me your thoughts.**

 **Cya XP**


	23. Understanding

Rogue Huntsman

Understanding

«»

A surge of energy and fire encompassed the hallway on the other side of the wall behind me.

Its light was contained by the user, despite her anger, but Kitsuki was still far too close and far too worried to be out of its blast of heat.

Anoel loved losing herself at times… it played to her personality well, especially her affinity, but it tended to draw up more collateral damage than necessary.

With that thought, I stood up and made my way over to the door, fresh cinnamon bagel in hand.

I placed my free hand atop her head, between her ears, and repositioned her to the right and out of the doorway just as the heat hit. The two furry appendages bounced and perked up for a moment in surprise, pressing into the sides of my hand, but I let go before anything more happened.

The kitsune's eyes quickly snapped to me as I took her place and held up my bagel, taking the heat in place of her.

"Easy on the heat there, Ano," I muttered, getting a small twinge of tension in my partner's shoulders to rise, but otherwise… she was leveling her gaze at the kid in the beanie inside the room across the hall.

Arex looked… embarrassed, for lack of a better word.

This was her problem, anyway. Why'd you have to get involved, Anoel?

The flames slowly lessened, receding into the room Anoel just walked into while I brought up the bagel I had been holding out to the woman's flames.

It was toasted to satisfactory levels, so I bit into the heated bread with a crunch and stepped out into the hallway.

" _Did you just help me? Or were you just toasting your bagel…?"_

Kitsuki's hands flashed through a couple signs behind my back as I swallowed the chunk I tore from my snack, something hard to miss considering she wasn't prone to doing anything else with her time but isolate herself.

"You mean exploit my partner to achieve a selfish goal?" I asked over my shoulder, giving her a minor glance off to the side as I turned toward her general direction.

" _You didn't have to-"_

"Phrase it like that?" I finished, lowering my bagel for a moment, "It doesn't matter how it's phrased, just that I did it."

I met her eyes out of the corners of my own, keeping my side toward her as I brought my bagel back to my teeth.

"Isn't that the common consensus these days?" I took a bite as she frowned, thin eyebrows furrowing for a moment as I watched her tails curl up.

A sign of tension… or anger, perhaps? Her heart confirmed the latter. She was angry at me.

" _Don't group everyone like that. There are still people who care."_

"And look where that ideology got you," I responded curtly, catching a swift display of shock and immediate regret pass through her fiery eyes, "The world's filled with scum who conform to the popularized will of the masses and corrupted seats of power who control what gets popularized. Those people you speak of?"

I held up my bagel, two bites gone and one more soon to be taken.

"They're too scarce to even be graced with the term of existential prominence."

" _But we have huntsmen, and they-"_

"Kill," I finished again, "Murder, maim, slaughter, rip limb from limb… is that not what they do? For every 100 Grimm slain, one hunter falls. And yet… the Grimm feel more prevalent and plentiful than ever before while _they_ slowly dwindle."

If I were actually caring enough to pull an assumption from that, I'd say something was stirring the Grimm moreso than they have in the past several decades. Someone out there was playing their hand while we sat still in a world of peace.

What better time to strike? While we're all asleep and dazed under the exhilarating intoxication of _happiness_ and _prosperity_.

Peace was always the calm before the storm.

 _Peace_ allows tension to be bred amongst the people outside of our little bubble of unstable ignorance.

I wonder if another war will break out… should be fun. The last one was pretty boring.

" _Do you believe in humanity… Niro…?"_ Kitsuki asked, her gaze leaving mine as I glanced back to her.

She was quick to evade my eyes, something the skittish fox was quickly making a habit of.

Do I believe in humanity, huh? Humanity, as a whole, brought up a world from ash and dust. They stepped up when no one else could, fought the battles everybody else kept away from, drilled through time and history just to make a footprint on this remnant of a planet we could've done without.

It was a dark place to live, yet this is where we were born, where we've prospered from century to century.

After the Shatter, this planet has always been the home of this Aura-born humanity… and we've always kept it.

But do I believe in them?

"I used to."

They say a huntsman is defined by their morality, not the reach of their blade or the draws of their aura. Each one is personified to either be a warrior of the light… or a mercenary of the dark. There's always been that consistency over the lifetimes of humanity.

Good and evil have always had a home in a world as real as Remnant.

To achieve the fruits of their morality, they use tools and powers to protect or destroy. They utilize, they captivate, and they take control.

But control is fleeting these days.

After all, what kind of sad excuse of a world raises heroes to the slaughter? What kind of place breeds for the sake of balancing out the toll of the death rates across every sector of civilization?

What kind of society enslaves its very people under no other scrutiny but fear and injustice?

That's what the world turned to, even after all it's been through. It fails, in every regard, in every inkling of dwindling hope, to ever, in any circumstantial way…

Be capable of _ever_ being something I believe in.

It was as hopeless as Jaune Arc's chances of killing a Dremoha.

" _Then maybe you should try to make it something you'd believe in."_

Kitsuki's silent words brought my focus back to the kitsune. Her golden-orange eyes were peering through her bangs from a down-turned gaze, donning a sheepish countenance that easily fit her persona perfectly.

How… naïve.

"I don't trust myself enough to take charge. With my luck, the world would unite and form the largest widespread crusade in history just to overthrow the king and start a democracy all over again."

A monster reigning over the common people of the world? Yeah, Hell had a better chance of freezing over than that ever coming to fruition.

Oh wait… Dante exists. Scratch that last thought.

I'll overthrow that white-haired asshole myself.

" _It doesn't matter if you trust in yourself or if you have the guise capable of earning the trust of the people. What matters is that you seem to be the only person who knows what they're talking about…"_ Kitsuki continued, her sheepishness wavering slightly and getting replaced with small twinges of confidence.

My bagel was getting cold.

"I don't suppose _you_ know what _you're_ talking about?" I didn't feel like speaking lowly to her, like I do with most people.

I wondered why for a few moments… but it was probably because she got enough of that from Cardin. These last few days must have been a reprieve for the fox… That Winchester knows how to make the life of a targeted faunus pretty miserable.

It seemed he'd taken a liking to Kitsuki.

Kitsuki turned her gaze down again, tilting her little head for a moment as I watched her ears fold atop her head, _"I'd like to believe I do…"_

I kept my eyes on hers for a few more seconds, watching to see if they would look away again as I stared. But even with that kind of pressure, her irises never averted from my own.

She had a backbone behind her statement, it seemed…

I brought up my free hand and placed it between her ears again, giving her soft hair a little rub as I turned away, "You believe in too many things. The world doesn't work like that, not like it used to."

Her eyes soon disappeared behind swaying strands of hair as I turned away fully and walked off, taking my hand away from her head to take my leave.

The little heart beating in the fox's chest was cheerfully coming to life.

I seem to have convinced her of something… Did she pull something from that conversation of ours? I could just chalk it up to the petting. After all, that's something she grew addicted to as soon as Arex pet her.

But that kind of response was impossible from anyone… as long as it was _me_ doing it.

Monsters don't deserve that kind of response.

As I walked, I took another bite of my bagel.

Damn. It's not as hot as I would've liked it to be.

* * *

"Are you sure you're fine?" Anoel asked, hands still gripping Arex's shoulders tightly after a long few seconds of checking her body for any injuries, marks, or discrepancies.

No, it was exactly the way she left it.

" _Yes_ ,Anoel, I'm _fine_ ," Arex reassured, trying her best to quell the inferno brimming from her sister's eyes, "He just… wanted to make sure I was the real deal before offering me a job."

"A… job, he says," Anoel narrowed her eyes, fixing the girl in her hands with a stern gaze, "What _kind_ of job?"

"I just have to build him something," the little phoenix responded earnestly, giving her sister a small tilt of the head.

"Did you ask him why?"

Arex paused for a few moments, bringing her eyes back to Anoel's before shaking her head, "It seemed reasonable, so the exact details weren't too important."

Anoel could only sigh at that, "How much?"

"Hasn't been decided yet."

"Range?"

"Ten thou to ten mil."

"And you didn't think to ask _questions_ …?"

Arex shook her head silently.

"Okay then…" Anoel took in a breath, slowly letting it out as the flames brimming from her hair and skin began to dwindle and fade away, "You can leave that part to me."

Arex could only nod and stay silent. She was being chided by her sister, lightly berated too, it was her sister scolding her for not thinking things through… but to be honest, she was only in it for the potential for new designs.

She could get a lot out of this kind of research into energy conduits, which she assumed the processors were for.

It wasn't that she didn't think about what he needed them for, she didn't need to ask those questions. She was adept with technological integrations into the forging world and its creations, so she had a few guesses as to what Ray was trying to build.

In regards to actually questioning him though… she didn't want to quite tell him upfront that she knew what he wanted to achieve.

It was better for her to keep that to herself and just take what she could from the contract, especially the experience and the exposure to something new.

"Y-you know, the door was unlocked…"

Anoel could only glance back to the one who spoke up, eyes flashing in a brief moment of embered flames.

"What door?"

"The, uh, the one you exploded?"

The phoenix glanced back to the wooden door in question, splinters of it still burning across the carpet. She silently took those flames back into her aura, leaving the carpet only slightly singed while the rest of the door was…

Mildly… intact?

Maybe?

"It doesn't look like a door anymore, does it…?" Arex pointed out.

"It's really just a frame now, isn't it…" Anoel replied.

"Yeah… thanks for that…"

"Oh hush up, you have the money to replace it don't you?" Anoel retorted, switching her gaze back to Ray huddled stiffly into his desk chair.

"I do, but… _you_ broke it, not me."

"Oh? My bad. I suppose I should go tell Ozpin about this little incident… he'll love to know why I broke in."

"Of course he would…" Ray mumbled in reply.

Anoel brushed some of the blackened shards of the door aside with her boot, swinging the remains of the brutalized door closed.

Well, for what it was worth… the hinges still worked.

Unfortunately, closing the door didn't constitute _not being able to walk out anymore._ There was a hole drilled through the middle of the entire entryway, easily large enough for her to still step back out into the hallway.

"He seems to have taken an interest in you," Anoel replied, glancing at the door one last time and fixing her slightly skewed hat.

Privacy was overrated anyway.

"Of course, though, I'm more than sure he already knows about your door. What _I_ need to know," Anoel turned back to her sister, causing the shorter girl to lock up for a few moments again before eyeing Ray, "is exactly _why_ you need my sister. Would you care to explain that?"

Ray shuffled nervously in his seat, a short sigh escaping his lips. "I need _her_ help, because I'm under supervision. You think I'm not capable of doing this myself?"

"That's the issue. I think you're _fully_ capable of building this thing yourself. But you've done well to stay hidden these past six years, what's changed?" Anoel asked. If he was under 'supervision', then that could easily mean someone was suspicious of his actions or whereabouts.

Or worse… someone was babysitting him…

Ray's eyes narrowed a fraction, "You know who I am then? Impressive."

"I'd hardly call it impressive. You're the spitting image of Orion Chroma himself, but I didn't need something as clear as that to give it away."

"You're with the networks, I assume? They're the only ones that even came close to keeping track of us."

"I head the faction in Vale, if that's what you're assuming," Anoel replied, picking up on the word 'us' in his response rather easily as she crossed her arms, "Is she still in the kingdom?"

Ray shrugged, "Your guess is as good as mine."

"I suppose so," the info-broker sighed, glancing to the dorm window for a brief second, "I can always just reel her in with a shiny object or something, she's into that. But the interest in Orion's son fell off as quickly as the first long year drifted by after his disappearance… And yet, here you are, in Beacon no less."

"I'm only here for as long as I need to be, once I have what I need, I'll be making a hasty retreat."

Anoel sighed as she tilted the rim of her hat up, resting her head in her hand, "Does this have anything to do with your father's weapon?"

"What do you think? I was told the last piece I need was here, thus I am forced to retrieve it manually."

It explained why the heir to one of the greatest minds of the last century was here, of all places. Ray's ideology toward Beacon was as potent and stubborn as Niro's was, if she could even put Ray anywhere close to her own partner's level of cynicism.

To put it bluntly, Ray would rather burn Beacon to the ground with a flood of alcohol than participate in its educational programs.

Niro would just let the place rot in history at the focal point of all uselessness across any generation of the world's decisions.

They both had their reasons…

But they were both equally stupid.

Still, for good reasons.

"I haven't heard anything about a piece of Avramosis residing within Beacon's walls, only a few rumors of one being in Vale. Did she give you that information?"

Ray only nodded in response.

Anoel sighed again. She'll have to pay that girl a visit… Ray's cousin may have dabbled heavily with the phoenix's interkingdom information network, but she wasn't always perceptive enough to recognize false intel from the real deal.

If this happened to be true, and if this information really was out there, then it was likely Ray wasn't the only person after his father's incomplete artifact.

Which would be really annoying…

Less for her, but more for Niro. She could only imagine what a bunch of treasure hunters on campus would do to her poor partner's well-being.

He might kill them.

Remorselessly.

And with cafeteria food.

"I'll visit her, she's probably still in Vale somewhere," Anoel breathed out, making her way back into the center of the room and taking her sister by the shoulders, "As for _you_ , we'll be talking more about this little _job_ of yours later. But for now, out you go."

Arex's own reply was cut short as Anoel directed her through the gaping hole in the door, letting her sister safely step out into the hallway and toward Kitsuki's waiting arms across the hall.

"I'll be there in a bit, yeah?"

"Anoel, are you-"

The door in front of the info-broker suddenly glazed over in a heated veil of orange energy, completely masking everything inside with the volcanic heat equivalent to Niro snapping his fingers.

Fire rapidly melted across the walls around the doorframe as Anoel's irises flashed with Aura and light, her skin burning once again as she let the flames spread to engulf the entirety of Ray's room.

"You and I still have some… unfinished business, do we not?" Anoel asked dismissively, turning her gaze to an empty desk chair, then turning it further to find a violet shell of hardlight energy pressed into the far corner of the room.

"Listen lady, I _completely understand_ how pissed off you may or may not-"

Anoel calmly stepped across the room as her fire swept over Ray's shield, engulfing his little corner in a wave of searing warmth.

"-be, b-but I wouldn't have d-done this if it wasn't necessary." He flinched as the flames crawled up the surface of the shield, gulping heavily as his eyes flickered within his safe dome.

His pitiful safety dome.

"Necessary? I suppose you'd find it understandable, to some extent, to attack my little sister," Anoel smiled sweetly, reaching his shield after a few short, agonizingly long, seconds of letting her flames spread further.

Ray's entire dorm room was engulfed in scorching fire now.

"It's a bit rude to come to an understanding without a face-to-face conversation, you know," the phoenix spoke against the shield, pressing her fingers gently into the shining manifestation of hardened light and Aura.

"So long as we only use our _words_ and _not_ our god-like powers."

"Oh, _honey_ , we're _long_ past just words here," Anoel chided, pushing her hand forward and passing it through Ray's shield of energy.

Violet fragments began to wilt away around her burning fingers, chipping and fluttering outward in burning embers of energized ash as her eyes simmered within the shadow of her own black hat.

"After all, it's only fair to return fire after being so unjustly attacked without good reason."

"I'll s-say the same to you as I did t-to her, it wasn't an attack."

"You broke into my sister's scroll, shattered her emotional integrity, and nearly ruined her chances of ever staying in Beacon altogether. Do you have any idea how hard it was getting her to agree to even sleep here?"

"T-that wasn't the intention…"

"Doesn't matter, what you _did_ still had those very same outcomes, whether you intended it to or not," the flames dismantling Ray's shield finally reached far enough to reveal the boy inside, and within a few short moments, the rest of his shell cracked and shattered into a thousand sparks of light.

Ray immediately dove past her as soon as his shield fell, scrambling across the floor and fumbling to snatch a book from beneath someone's bed along the way.

"Midget! Wake up!" he screamed frantically, chucking the book at the sleeping girl on the bed, only for it to miss and strike the bedside table, nearly knocking the lamp on top of it over its edge.

He tried again with another book as Anoel calmly stood back up.

"Damnit, Scarlet! I'm gonna die!"

His next throw struck the far closet door as the girl on the bed rolled over in her sleep, curling up into her pillow within the shield Anoel formed around her bed.

She was only after Ray, after all. So the girl was protected from this kind of blistering heat.

"You couldn't hit the broadside of a Goliath with that aim," Anoel commented, suddenly crouching next to the boy crawling backward across the ground and flicking his nose with a burning finger.

"W-what do you want?! I-I can pay you… I'll literally pay you to go away. Anything, any price. I'm aware I fucked up, but is _death_ really the consequence here?!" Ray sputtered out, crashing into the foot of Scarlet's bed with his back as he yanked on her blanket.

She was still out like a light.

"Money is no substitute for what you did," Anoel replied curtly, standing to follow Ray across the room.

"T-then information! Anything you want to know, I can get it."

Anoel hummed and tapped her chin as she slowly reached him, "Tempting, but not interesting enough. Is there anything else you want to offer? Your life, maybe?"

Ray took a deep, ragged breath, "I-if you want neither of those two things, then is there _anything else_ other than my life you want? Okay, I broke your sister's will to stay here. Frankly, I don't blame her, but I _seriously_ doubt that killing me will improve the situation."

Anoel's lips twisted into a tiny smile as she knelt before Ray against his partner's bed, fingers lightly touching the blazing ground as she leaned in closer to him, "I never said I was going to kill you."

She leaned in closer, the fire engulfing the room around them growing stronger as her burning cheek barely grazed the surface of his own. She wanted to make sure he heard her next words loud and clear… and took them as gravely as a real threat on his sad excuse of a life.

"Just never try something like that again. Sound fair?"

"Done." Ray gulped and nodded once, his response quick and bold.

"Care to… convince me?"

Ray's hand scrambled across the ground for a moment as he threaded a line of hardlight wire through the carpet, quickly snagging and pulling his messenger bag from beneath his own bed into his grasp.

"C-compensation, then?" he asked, withdrawing a couple thousand lien.

He didn't have any more than ten thousand lien in his bag, especially after his partner got to it and exploited it for her midnight snacking escapades.

But it was everything physical he had on-hand at the moment.

"There's no earnesty in money," Anoel replied, but she wouldn't say no to seven-thousand lien. She gently plucked the offering from his hands before she leaned away from him.

Ray's hand then quickly dipped back into his bag and withdrew another thousand.

"And for your sister, too…"

Anoel smiled sweetly and accepted that offering as well, pocketing the lien before placing a heated hand on his shoulder.

It didn't burn him immediately… which she noted briefly, but she wasn't putting any lethal heat into the touch at all in the first place.

Instead, the center of his iris sparked momentarily in the shining color of her own flames… contrasting the amethyst colors of his eyes.

"I believe we've come to a civilized understanding then."

Ray grimaced and let out a deep, mumbled, " _Civilized_ my ass…"

Anoel nodded with a warm smile as she tightened her hold on his shoulder, "And if you do it again," she tilted her head calmly, keeping her smile innocent, "I'll take your life as payment."

The kid in the beanie could only gulp and nod his head in understanding, "Understood."

"Perfect~" Anoel purred, slipping her hand from his shoulder before standing up.

The flames engulfing the room slowly melted away, fading into the air and trickling back into her aura as she gave the energy a small dismissive wave of her fingers.

"Arex will be fine. If it was anyone else attacking her scroll with that kind of success, she'd be gone in a heartbeat. But it seems she'll be staying after meeting this particular attacker…"

Her gaze fell over the room one last time, everything as intact and spotless as it was when she walked in a few minutes earlier.

Save for the door.

Ray's partner remained untouched as well, only just now stirring from her slumber.

"I hope you're the kind to keep your promises," Anoel commented one last time, making her way to the ruined door before pulling it open, "I hate it when people go back on their word."

As she left, she heard the brief voice of Ray inside as she noticed him turn his gaze to his awakening partner.

"You're useless…"

* * *

I stepped off the roof of another one of Beacon's bullheads and stepped foot back into the city of Vale. Noon had passed by now, the sun working its way down as I stuffed my hands into my lean pockets.

Didn't think someone as infamously important as the son of a great intellectual mind in the scientific and technological community would ever step foot in a school hell-bent on training warriors.

But like hell that'll ever stick, considering how hypocritical that thought is.

I'm going to Beacon, after all. What does that make me?

The victim?

I've always been the universe's chew toy, so this isn't much different.

In any case, I turned to the shadowy purple aura faintly rushing across the rooftops on the other side of the city, closer to the water.

It was running alongside a golden image of the monkey I sensed earlier.

"Ah, so they're heading there too," I muttered, making my way toward the direction of the docks.

I had someone I wanted to meet.

Apparently, they caught wind of the arrival of an old friend as well.

* * *

 **Ah, now that I've stepped foot into my own personal arcs, it's time to jump back into the plot of canon as well.**

 **I really need to get to that. It's been way too long of just character developments XD. I think you know the OC's well enough by now.**

 **In any case, Anoel is REALLY protective of her little sister. So, do your best not to hurt Arex.**

 **One more thing. Did any of you pick up on the fact that Niro casually stood up and moved over to set Kitsuki aside** _ **after**_ **the explosion of heat went off? Which means he moved within the span of a fraction of a second to save her from the heat?**

 **And so boringly too… XD, I hope you did notice this. I do it a lot… Niro does a lot of abnormal things that, in his perspective, are 100% casual and normal things for him to do.**

 **Keep an eye out.**

 **For now,** _ **Favorite**_ **and** _ **Follow**_ **.**

 **I look forward to seeing** _ **REVIEWS**_ **for this. You'll be introduced to a LOT of concepts of mine. Feel free to give me your thoughts.**

 **Cya XP**


	24. Interference

Rogue Huntsman

Interference

«»

Night fell far too slowly tonight.

The stars were high and on show, scattering across the sky in nebulas of far-reaching systems that did nothing but taunt you with the tantalizing promises of purity and light.

As if a passing asteroid could ever grant you that in the first place.

Nobody should possess the ability to tamper with time. But lo and behold, the universe found it funny to let any and all look back in time as they gaze up into a starry sky.

Way to go.

Not a cloud in the sky tonight. Maybe it was the storm, maybe it was the universe giving me a break, but I knew it was nothing short of the prior.

Like hell the universe would ever give me a break.

I stepped up onto the curb of the sidewalk and followed through with a minor step up to the rooftop of a nearby storage building. 20 meters high, enough room to store crates and cargo from incoming and outgoing ships.

I thought we would've abandoned sea voyages by now, but it's still popular among the masses. It was efficient.

You expended less fuel while carrying more cargo on an oceanic vessel as opposed to an airborne vehicle. It was smart, or at least somewhat so.

Either way, I was on the roof of a warehouse building now on the southern end of Vale's docks.

The kitten and the monkey were on a roof across the way, but it seemed her 'friends' actually managed to find her. Their focus was far too narrowed and tunneled to even glance my black from across the entirety of the docks, yet I could see them so clearly.

Pyrrha was with them, undoubtedly to help but in vain. Jaune was just the luggage she dragged along with her to watch over, care for, and make sure it never got lost somewhere down the line. The two I talked to earlier, Ren and Nora, they were up there too.

That just left the rest of team RWBY and… something made of metal.

Yang and Weiss were across the rooftop, all of them having spread out across a building or two, but nowhere near an even remotely effective formation to monitor an entire docking field.

Ruby and an orange-haired robot stood side by side in the shadows of their own building, a thin, winding tension twining through the one made of metal as I caught her gaze headed my way.

How quaint… she could see me, but not the others.

Eyes of emerald green locked with mine and the hamster in her mechanical brain uttered something through her lips.

The note brought Ruby's own widened eyes my way too.

Don't lump me in with your half-baked plans, little red. This isn't the place for children nor is it the place for an overreaching inventor's creation.

But none of that mattered, in the end.

He was here.

I turned my gaze to find a search light snap on as a bullhead crossed the water from the east, bursting a powerful jet of air across the concrete below as it drifted down and landed at the center of the docks.

Far too many eyes homed in on the opening bay doors of the grounded vessel, pistons releasing their seals as the back of the bullhead slowly opened and touched base with the ground.

Ah, there you are. Been a while… Roman.

There he was in all his eye-liner glory, bowler hat perfectly positioned atop his head of smoothly combed, orange hair. Some of it even neatly cascaded over his eye. His white suit was fashionably operable and his dress shoes showed off a shiny glint as he walked down the lowered bay door.

I see he brought his cane with him too… loaded to the brim with flares. He seemed confident he'd be fighting something tonight.

Next to him walked out a small squadron of White Fang members, six total, while to his right walked a lazy asshole I've seen before, blanketed in pitch black shadows… as per usual.

And he brought his lackey…

An intense golden aura festered inside the shadow of a teenager walking beside the person I wanted to contact. Black shaggy hair, reflective golden eyes, black baggy sweatpants and a cotton jacket of the same color sporting equally black fur trim.

He sported sneakers for footwear, meaning he was going to be mobile, especially from what I sensed from him. He had a pair of black falcon wings beneath his coat, and around his shoulders and torso was a bandolier of high caliber filled clips.

In his hands rested a heavily modified Barret M82 rifle, twenty-nine inches of pure barrel and chocked full of .50 caliber BMG rounds.

The 17-year-old kid was a sniper with military-grade experience and the track record to prove it. Rumors have circulated around a mercenary called the Shadow, never seen but capable of holding down or taking out any number of targets.

He was lethal up to 3 kilometers and has personally carried out missions for the cartel, mafia, Fang, hell even Atlas hired him a few times to take care of high-priority targets without a trace.

He was the Dark Angel of any mission with or without a clear goal, a guardian that never let anything live in his sights.

Intel says his greatest feat was taking out a high-ranking official in the heart of a Vacuan sandstorm across a distance of 3.1 kilometers. The kill took place in low-light-level conditions and beneath the mercy of hurricane level winds.

He was accurate, I'll give him that. His shot predictions were highly credited, but he couldn't shoot something that could catch one of his pathetic bullets between the teeth.

He knows that too… he was hired to kill me once.

Kyzal Drave… a mercenary for hire. It was the one mission he failed, but his backers knew it wouldn't succeed. They were just interested in testing me.

Too bad Anoel already knew about the hit and tipped off the local militia about the location of those who placed the target on my head.

Kyzal didn't return to any buyers that night.

"Alright, grab the cables. Let's get this done quick and painless," Roman called out, ushering the Fang members away before turning a glance back to his golden-eyed angel, "This is a big but simple job, kid. Just go find a perch somewhere and keep me posted."

Within that moment, the kid's body wrapped itself in his own shadow and he disappeared.

His semblance was what made him so untraceable… the ability to manipulate shadows. I felt his presence disappear from the concrete below and reappear inside the shadow of a nearby rooftop, three down from mine.

Roman's little golden eye, so much for the plan RWBY and JNPR cooked up. They were probably just here to scout out who was coming.

I doubted they'd try anyth-

Oh, well isn't _she_ ambitious…

* * *

"Blake! What are you doing?!" Suni hissed, scrambling to the ledge as her raven-haired friend leapt down.

Blake landed in a silent roll on the concrete below, letting her legs quietly carry her forward behind a towering line of crates as she made her way closer to the landing party of Fang members. She rushed to the blind spot of the bullhead at the dock's center before swiftly slipping around its hull and dashing out, drawing her blade along the way.

"Nobody move!"

Razor-sharp steel pressed coldly to Roman's throat in the middle of him berating one of the Fang members for his incompetency with cables, Gambol Shroud's edge far too close for his aura to negate.

"Brothers of the White Fang! Why are you aiding this criminal scum?!" Blake called out, tearing her black bow from its ribbon atop her head.

Those who responded to her first cry immediately lowered their weapons, and those just tuning in only continued to stare at the sudden appearance of one of their own kind in confusion.

"Oh, _kitten_ , didn't you get the memo?" Roman chided, chuckling against the pressure of the blade against his throat as he smiled, "The White Fang and I are going on a little joint business venture together."

Blake's eyes narrowed as she dug her blade into his skin, "And if I put a stop to your little operations, right here, right now?"

"Weeell," Roman let his voice reverberate as he released a lingering breath, "I wouldn't call it a _little_ operation…"

Blake's ears twitched at the familiar sound of two more bullheads rolling in from the sea, shaking the air above them as she took a hesitant step back.

That was all Roman needed to pop the sights open at the end of his can and tilt it back, igniting a flair of Dust within his chamber and firing it into the ground between himself and the cat faunus at his back.

Smoke quickly engulfed them as a flash of burning red sent Blake flying, his aura letting the blaze harmlessly wrap around him before he patted down his suit and fixed his hat.

"I believe we have an unwanted guest," he informed, twisting his cane in his hands as he let the metal rod spin deftly around his hand. His gaze then turned to the Fang members in front of him, "You know what to do."

The other two bullheads touched down across the docks before him as he cracked a small smile, three more already on their way from their base of operations.

It would only take them another minute to arrive.

He _did_ say this wasn't a little operation after all. They needed Dust.

And big old papa Schnee left him _such_ a wonderful present out in the open… almost daring someone to take a little…

Or all of it.

"Kyzal, fire when ready, but don't kill the kid," Roman nodded up to his associate as he tapped his ear, "Our boss would be on my ass if the body of a Beacon student was found dead at the docks."

He knew there wasn't any time to hide a body in a place like this, let alone take it with them. That first explosion easily alerted the cops, and he was _not_ going to let all this cargo go to waste.

What kind of grand thief would he be if he got caught halfway through a heist?

No… he wanted it. _All_ of it.

And now, he was on a time constraint.

* * *

I slipped my hands into my pockets as I made my way over to the ledge of my roof and took a seat.

This suddenly got interesting…

Blake had already recovered, making her way behind cover as her position was lit up by rifle-fire from the Fang members. Everybody else made their way down now as well, only leaving Ruby, Penny, and a hesitant-looking Weiss up on the high ground as the small girl in red aimed down the sights of her scythe.

A tiny little army versus Roman's sad excuse for a competent group of bodyguards...

It was a fight between a bunch of kids with their shiny toys and a bunch of delusional half-wits with two parts dumb and one part feral in their mindsets.

It was hardly worth any thought at all.

Not even-

My fingers clenched the cloth of my glove as I tore my hands from my pockets and planted them solidly on the ledge I watched from.

Someone else was here…

I turned my gaze sharply to the highest building closest to the city, its entire surface brimming with energy and teeming with electricity as I noticed a figure calmly looking down into the fray below.

What the hell was an Affinity User doing at the docks?

* * *

Blake fell back, retreating to the sanctuary of a wall of metal containers as she pressed herself against one of them and unfolded her gun.

Her amber eyes tightly glanced around the container's corner as she peered toward the Fang members opening fire on her, bullets clanking off the metal in front of her and digging into the ground and containers behind her.

 _Damn it! He was right there… I had him…_

Those twin orbs narrowed before a sharp crack of a rifle descended from a rooftop far above, the corner just above her ears ripping apart as shards of metal shattered in a rattling clang.

She immediately pulled back as a healthy chunk from the metal container fell to the ground in pieces.

And now that shadowed kid she saw earlier was firing at her too… great! Just great!

She was so confused and angry. Why on Remnant was the White Fang, the very group she's trusted for so long but left so suddenly, working with a human? They've _never_ trusted humans before.

That was one of the first lessons Adam ever forced onto her. He hated them more than anyone else.

And here he was… allying himself with one of them?!

She growled as she moved to the other side of the container, stepping over to its corner to take another peak. But before she could, the rifle in the distance cracked and sent another round deep into the shattering concrete of where she was about to step up to, right at the corner.

 _How does he…_ Her eyes widened. Did he… know she'd go to the other side? Or… could he sense her…

She didn't have time to figure that out as the consistent barrage of gunfire came to a sudden halt. The Fang members stopped firing.

 _Why?_

She bit her lip and dove into a roll, throwing herself unpredictably out from cover to take a quick glance out into the combat as she slipped between crates.

"Alley-oop!" Yang called out as she took a Fang member by the horns and kneed him in the stomach, crunching the guy over her leg before she raised him up and slammed her fist into his chin.

She sent the combatant into the night sky just as Nora sailed through the air and connected the flat end of her hammer into the White Fang member's gut, brutally batting the faunas across the length of the docking yard and careening him into a far wall of containers.

"Nice layup!" Nora cheered, landing in a low crouch as Ren used her back as a stepping stone.

The green-clad teen flipped through the air as his streak of pink trailed behind him inside his mane of raven locks, firing a quick burst from his pistols to push back an encroaching circle of Fang members.

"Those two bullheads dropped off reinforcements!" Suni called out, dropping down from one of the crates as she landed sneakers first into the face of one of their enemies.

"More things to punch," Yang replied, slamming her knuckles together as she cracked her neck, "Let's just let em ha-"

Her words caught in her throat as a sharp crack of a rifle rattled the containers around them and slipped a gleaming bullet by her left arm, hot metal grazing her skin and aura.

"Sniper, be wary!" Pyrrha's voice called out as Jaune's frame flopped and barely rolled into the space Yang and Ren occupied. Pyrrha's form followed up soon enough as she dropped down into a defensive stance in front of Yang, shield raised and eyes staring up to the rooftop in the distance.

"We need someone to challenge him," Jaune muttered out, pulling his shield up into an unbalanced stance as he took up his position next to his partner.

Nora was busy bashing skulls and taking names as she performed an elegant ballet routine within the scattered ranks of the White Fang members that once surrounded the teens.

It was a beautiful dance of smashing, crushing, and laughing.

"Sorta figured that, but all it means is that we need to be careful," Yang replied, shaking the shock out of her eyes as she charged forward.

"You call that careful?!" Jaune called after her.

"He hasn't killed us yet, hasn't he?! It looks like he's just a bad shot!"

"That doesn't mean he won't-" Jaune was cut off as a bullet met his shield, destroying his already horrendous balance and sending him stumbling backward, "What the… what the hell was that bullet made of?!"

A sharp reverberation shot up his arm in a throbbing, numbing pang as he dropped his shield, quickly moving to pick it up before another crack sounded out and connected with his shield again.

His poor piece of defensive equipment was sent skidding across the docks.

"N-no! Crocea!" the blonde knight rushed after his beautiful shield, only for it to get struck again and suddenly change direction as soon as he reached it.

"I don't think his aim is anywhere near poor," Ren quietly realized, his pistols lowering as Yang joined the fray.

"No, if anything, he's more precise than any of us know," Pyrrha replied, worriedly watching as Jaune rushed around the Docks, chasing after his runaway shield as he stumbled in and out of gunfire and swinging blades.

It was almost comical… if she wasn't so worried.

"Why would he give his sniper an order not to kill us while letting the White Fang fire freely?" Ren asked skeptically, eyeing the rooftop in the distance to keep a watchful gaze on their adversary up top.

"I know nothing for certain, but I believe it has something to do with a difference in skill," Pyrrha offered.

Ren's gaze quickly turned to her, "You mean… he expects his White Fang members to lose? While he knows his sniper can ensure a lethal kill?"

Pyrrha's eyes only winced as she nodded, "He doesn't seem to put much faith in the Fang."

Her revelation was met with another crack of a bullet, Kyzal having time out of his few minutes of playing with the Arc below to send a bullet into Pyrrha's own shield.

The force connected and dispersed as Pyrrha shouldered the impact, planting her grieves into the concrete below to spread the kinetic energy through her body.

It was dead center… and it happened so quickly… The firing on Jaune's shield didn't so much as falter in the time he took to switch targets, turn, and fire at her before returning to Jaune.

"I don't like this…" Pyrrha muttered, giving Jaune a careful glance before she leaned forward and ran into the battle.

Ren didn't like this either, but he followed suit.

Stopping this robbery was going to be… difficult.

* * *

Ruby tilted her sights up to the individual in the shadows diagonally across the buildings over the battlefield below. She fixed the black-haired teen in the distance into the crosshairs of her scope before lowering her barrel and aiming for his arm.

She didn't want to kill him… she just wanted him to stop firing down on her friends below. Those were her teammates.

She wasn't about to let someone keep hurting them.

A small breath left her lips as she exhaled, steadying her arms before pulling the trigger. Air swept itself aside as a concussive blast rang out from her position, firing her fire-clad bullet across the way as she watched her target's eyes suddenly snap up to where she stood.

And then he disappeared… completely.

"W-what?!"

Ruby searched the rooftop he was residing on for any sign of him, but he was gone. His form had suddenly gone dark and disappeared completely.

Another crack of a powerful rifle sounded out and Ruby flinched, a sharp pain rushing up her arm as her Crescent Rose was torn from her grasp. Her shoulder gave out as a bullet drilled into the hardened side of her beloved weapon's frame.

"No!" she burst after her rifle in a bout of speed and caught it before it toppled over the edge of the roof, her whole body teetering over the edge now.

"Ruby! Are you alright? Are you hurt?" Penny asked behind her, a solid tug pulling the reaper back onto the roof by the end of her cloak.

Ruby's feet stumbled her backward as Penny checked her over, scanning her arm for any injuries before taking Ruby's shoulders and meeting her eyes.

"Does anything hurt?"

"I-I'm fine, Penny. Really, all good," Ruby breathed out, a dull soreness in her arms but fine nonetheless.

Her own silver eyes quickly turned to her weapon and checked it over… the additional armor Arex forged into her weapon's shell was able to disperse the energy evenly across the weapon, despite all the moving parts encapsulated within it.

She grazed her fingers over where the bullet struck and felt its surface… finding it to be unscratched and smooth.

All of her own worries faded away as she realized her weapon was undamaged.

"Ruby, who are these people?" Penny eventually asked, caring eyes staring into the reaper's own in blank confusion.

"They're-" Ruby took in another breath, letting her weapon fall to her side as she burdened its comfortable weight, "They're not nice people, Penny. They kill, they steal, they cheat, and they want to steal all the Dust here at the docks tonight. We weren't sure if the Fang would be involved, but this confirms it. Blake needed to… to see this."

"Why would she need to see something like this?"

"She needed to convince herself that this wasn't the White Fang… but she ended up being wrong, and now she's in danger down there."

"You said Blake was your friend earlier, but you also said it was complicated. Do you care for Blake?" Penny asked, bringing the younger girl's gaze back to her.

"S-she's my teammate and my friend. Of course I care for her."

Penny's grip loosened from Ruby's arms as the ginger nodded softly, "I understand what I must do, then."

"Penny, wait. What must you do?" Ruby asked quickly, stepping forward as Penny turned away and made her way over to the edge of the building.

"I must protect Ruby and her friends," the girl replied simply, stepping up onto the ledge as three more bullheads passed overhead from the darkness of the ocean.

Blinding lights streaked down from the sky as the aircrafts circled above, the revving of steel barrels rotating to life sounding down to them and the combatants below.

"P-penny?"

Penny raised her arms and leaned forward, panels in her backpack opening to unlatch nine blades from within its compartment as she gave Ruby a nod and a smile.

"Do not worry, Ruby. I'm combat ready."

Penny's simple statement sealed itself away within Ruby's confusion as the girl's backpack closed and the ginger-haired girl dropped off the rooftop in front of her.

 _Penny…_

* * *

All three bullheads opened fire on the students below, scattering them across the docks as the downed White Fang members on the ground slowly began to recover.

They couldn't fire down on Roman's position to help him, but he was holding his own against Blake and Suni as they pressed an advance against him.

Instead, the three vessels continued to circle and bury salvos of golden streams of bullets into the pavement of the docks at the students around the scene.

Ren and Nora took cover immediately, Jaune and Pyrrha quickly following as everyone skid across the concrete of the docks and dodged whatever hellfire that rained down from above.

Yang wanted to help her partner face Roman, but her path was torn apart by a shower of golden bullets, shards of stone fragmenting before her eyes as she buried her boots into the ground and turned around.

 _Blake… you better be okay…_ She took off for cover as the bullets chased her tail.

She was halfway to the containers before another stream of bullets tore into the ground in front of her, forcing her into a tight turn to just barely dodge the two streams of blazing metal.

"Shit!" two rounds clipped her shoulder as she stumbled away from the ruined pavement, clenching through the sharp pain as her aura worked to heal her fresh wounds.

She was running away from the cover now… heading toward the water of the docks.

"Not good, not good, not good!" Yang spat out in a chant, tilting toward her right only to meet the cracking of stone and the blaze of the second trail of bullets.

Her left side was met with the same fate.

She could only keep running, and she was quickly running out of docks to even run _on_.

Her mind cursed up a storm as she growled and picked up pace, running all the harder as the bullets clipped her feet and the sound of rushing waves graced her ears.

"Penny!"

Yang heard her sister's cry from above her before she snapped her gaze up to the rooftop she was rushing by.

Ruby stood at the edge of the roof, silver gaze cast somewhere below and behind her as the blonde kept running. But as soon as Ruby called out, the chains of bullets cascading down around her suddenly stopped and the blonde brawler was finally able to skid to a halt.

"Ruby, what are you-"

Her voice was drowned out as all three bullheads turned and opened fire on a young girl at the base of the building directly below Ruby.

Three streams of blazing bullets melted into one as they crashed down into the ginger-haired girl Yang met earlier, the blonde's eyes widening as her whole body locked up.

A musty dust cloud swept up around the destruction, the three bullheads letting their machine guns rev back down as two of them turned away…

Only for the central one to open fire again.

Rapidly spinning blades whirred where Penny stood, crashing through and scattering bullets into the building and the ground behind and around the small girl's frame as she dispersed another hail of bullets sent her way again.

Dust swept back into the air as she stepped forward, pushing her spinning blades into the barrage of bullets before she dipped down and entered a dead sprint ahead of her.

"Tango! Six o'clock!"

A group of Fang members suddenly turned toward Penny as she dashed out of her cloud of dust, slipping beneath the stream of bullets and under her spinning swords before her blades trailed behind her in wing formation.

"Light her up!" one of them yelled, opening fire only for his bullets to glance off one of Penny's passing swords.

For every bullet, Penny slipped a blade in front of her form to dispatch. She didn't need to worry about small nuisances like that.

She was programmed to run through these kinds of calculations at speeds far faster and far more vast than the human mind could ever comprehend.

Penny slipped around the encroaching wall of bullets with ease as she tore into the projectiles with her blades and flipped into the air, drawing up all of her blades with a simple raise of an arm before she twirled and sent them all brutally crashing through the group of White Fang soldiers at her mercy.

She quietly fell back to the ground as the group of bodies rained down behind her, stilling against the cold concrete of the docks as she turned to the bullhead in the sky and brought her blades back to her front.

Its guns were reloading, something that she calculated to take another 13.87 seconds to accomplish.

She only needed 9.

Penny tightened her strings into a tight formation and rotated her blades in front of her, drawing on the aura pulsating within her reserves as she extended her arms in front of herself. Two small shoes planted deeply into the ground as she focused and accelerated the speed of her rotating blades.

The speed of her swords created a seamless magnetic field as she let her weapons become a capsule for her energy to rush into.

It was the perfect conduit… and she flooded it with volatile, green energy as a powerful green light began to fester between the quick rotations of her black, shining blades.

The dullness of the night around her slowly faded away as her energy stabilized and began to grow, burning brighter and brighter as she channeled more aura into her attack before she brought her arms forward and-

A crack of a rifle broke through the air and knocked one of her blades aside, breaking her containment field for her energy.

Her move suddenly collapsed in on itself and imploded, emerald eyes widening as the girl was engulfed in a combustive explosion of her own making.

Another cloud of dust whipped up, veiling the girl within… until her frame was seen careening out from the back end of the cloud and soon crashed into the brick wall of the building she dropped from.

13.87 seconds had passed…

The bullhead lowered and dispersed the cloud of dust, setting its sights back on Penny embedded deeply into the wall behind her as crumbling stones cascaded around her.

Those barrels at its armored sides suddenly revved to life as it began to heat up its guns, only for a blaze of blonde hair to dash into its line of fire and skid to a stop in front of their intended target.

Violent, angry crimson eyes stared back at the gunners in the bullhead as Yang Xiao Long entered their view.

Yellow hair blazed in wisps of burning energy, shining gauntlets were held up in a tight, guarded stance as her entire being almost seemed to scream its presence and its immovability.

The gunners in the bullhead only shrugged and opened fire.

A new hail of bullets dug into Yang's shoulders, stomach, torso, and legs as she glanced some of the storm off to the side with her golden gauntlets. The girl protected her chest and face most of all, letting her body take the brunt of the guns before she let out a guttural growl.

Her hair blazed white in a flash as her eyes flashed red, the rushing hail of bullets raining down on her suddenly shattering as her surroundings whited out in a rush of fading color.

Yang tucked back and dug her feet deep into the ground, burying both boots several inches into the concrete at her feet before she slammed her fist into the ground and bit through her torrents of pain… blood dripping from her lips.

The blaze around her melted the following encroachment of bullets before the projectiles could even reach her, and just as those gunners slowly stopped firing… Yang released a slow, pent up breath and screamed.

She kicked up from the ground in a blast of rupturing concrete and brought back her fist, crimson eyes trailing in a vengeful light as the pilot of the bullhead suddenly squeaked and pulled back, attempting to get out of the girl's way-

But only succeeded in pulling back for half a second before Yang's molten fist surged forward and crushed the hull of the bullhead's entire nose.

Glass, metal, and engines all crumpled and shattered as Yang pushed forward with all the strength and momentum she had as she discharged every last morsel of force she built up from eating that hail of bullets for so long.

Engines sputtered and died in mere fractions of a second as Yang's proportionally small form sent the hulking, armored vessel spinning and hurling away with a concussive blast. Pressure ripped through the air in a passing wave as the entire ship hurdled violently to the edge of the docks and crashed into the dark waters beyond its end.

"Yang!" Ruby watched her sister's form grow limp as she fell from the sky, immediately holstering her compacted scythe before kicking forward and dashing into her semblance's speedy pull.

She flashed forward in a blurred line before reforming just beneath Yang, the elder sister falling heavily into her arms before she dashed down and killed their momentum just above the ground.

* * *

I made my way across the edge of my building as all the squabbling went down below me.

My senses were leading me in the direction of a small, suppressed manifestation of dark energy. He was keeping himself hidden quite well while firing from varying positions across the several rooftops of the surround buildings of the docks.

It seems Kyzal had quite the trick up his sleeve… capable of switching from shadow to shadow in the blink of an eye.

I slipped down from my high ledge and landed silently onto the next rooftop, taking a single step forward before I reached out and plugged my finger into the barrel of a suddenly appearing Barret M82.

His next predicted spot to shadow warp to.

Two golden eyes suddenly widened in the shadows before me just as his trigger was pulled, bullet crashing harmlessly against the finger I stuffed his weapon with as I tilted my hat to him.

"Kyzal," I stated simply, my other hand taking a tight grip of his barrel.

"Niro… what are you doing here?" Kyzal asked, taking his finger off the trigger and appearing fully from the shadows.

"I needed to make a small… proposition, to your employer," I replied, taking my hands off his weapon after he took his finger off its trigger.

He knew when he was beaten.

"Be my guest."

The falcon sat himself down and rested his rifle at his side, giving me that bored, yet subtly intrigued expression I knew him most familiarly by.

"Thanks, I'll make this quick," I returned before stepping away from him, silently dropping over the edge of the building a moment later.

I had some business of my own to conduct.

* * *

 **This was the first time I actually wrote in any point of view outside of my main team of OC's. In a way, I allowed this because Niro was present and his senses extend far further than anyone else in the story.**

 **So, he's able to pick up every piece of dialogue and see/feel every action done.**

 **But of course, I also did it for the readability. I'm not sure how often I'll stray from my characters, but I wanted to make sure this setting was laid nicely out for all you instead of Niro just staring in boredom the whole time.**

 **Anyway, let me know what you thought of the chapter! I need to know how I did, you know.**

 **And whether or not it was enjoyable too.**

 **Did you like Kyzal?**

 **Also, I didn't quite focus on Roman's fight with Suni and Blake. That basically went more or less down the same way as it did in the show.**

 **You didn't have to see that all over again. Oh? What was that? You wondering why Sun's different?**

 **For now, _Favorite_ and _Follow_.**

 **I look forward to seeing _REVIEWS_ for this. You'll be introduced to a LOT of concepts of mine. Feel free to give me your thoughts.**

 **Cya XP**


	25. Acquaintances

Rogue Huntsman

Acquaintances

«»

Reinforced concrete cracked and shattered under the impact of my boots, webs of rupturing asphalt rushing across the battlefield to quiet the miserable displays of back and forth combat along the docks.

This was hardly even a scuffle.

White Fang members and students alike grew separated by upturned stone, the docks splitting under my aura to keep the fighting at bay as I walked a clean pathway to Roman at its center.

His weapon had already discharged in the face of Suni Wukong, took me too damn long to even recall the monkey's name, but the bristling flare careened off to the side and diverted into the ground.

The lingering traces of a rifle's gunshot echoed across the docks as a fluttering red cloak draped heavily over the ground behind Ruby Rose. Smoke softly flickered from the end of her scythe's barrel, bleeding sister still in her arms.

Her bullet struck the end of Roman's cane and saved Suni the trouble of paying her entry fee to the afterlife.

I'm impressed she was able to fire so accurately with that many tears cluttering her eyesight.

"Oh, is that you Little Red?" Roman called, swaying his cane off to the side as he placed his free hand on the top of his bowler cap, giving her entry a momentary bow, "I didn't see you over there."

"Give it up Roman!" Ruby called back, keeping her scythe's barrel trained on his chest, "Y-you're surrounded!"

"Am I?" Roman wondered, glancing around to meet the imposing faces of several clusters of upturned asphalt. He was encompassed in a fragmented, circular ring of broken ground.

His men were all groaning on the docks out of his field of vision. The kids had some fight in them, I'll give em that.

"I suppose I am, but oh wait~" Roman's eyes finally fell onto me as I made my way between the split mountains of stone, "Backup seems to have arrived _just_ in the nick of time. Good to see you, Niro."

He made a swift bow to me, flipping off his black hat for merely a moment before twirling it back into place.

"Roman," I greeted simply, stopping just a meter shy of his suit-clad form and putting up a muffled field around us, stifling our words with silence to any onlookers.

"Awe, don't have anything else to say to an old friend?" Roman asked, snugly fitting his cap back into place before gesturing around him, "It's been far too long, kid. Where's the enthusiasm, the pizazz, the emotion?"

"Never needed it unless drinks were involved," I responded, slipping my hands into my pockets as I lifted my gaze to reveal my eyes, "I'm here on business."

"Of course you are," Roman sighed, brushing down the shaft of his cane with his gloved hand to clean it of clinging dust, "Let me guess, you got roped into this joint business venture too. Am I wrong?"

"I'm nothing more than a neutral third party who holds a temporary interest with both sides of the exchange," I elaborated, pulling one of my hands out of my pockets now and withdrawing my scroll, "I'm on nobody's side."

"Freelance, huh? Not many have it in them for that line of work," he replied, taking a step away from an exhausted Suni on the ground and toward me, crumbled stone crunching beneath his gleaming shoe, "I won't lie, having you as an ally would make my job a _hell_ of a lot easier, but not having you as an enemy is good enough."

"Views of necessity are subject to change. But for now, you know where I stand," I returned, taking a step to the side as the two of us met in the field of cratered rock, out of sight of the others.

" _She_ won't be very keen to hear you aren't taking sides in this war right now, but I'm a man who _enjoys_ many things. I certainly enjoy living, so to that end, I won't question your judgment," Roman said, stopping adjacent to me and twirling his cane into his grasp, "What business brings you to my heist?"

"I trust this meeting won't fall on her ears?" I asked.

"My lips are sealed. She won't hear it from me," Roman replied, but his carefree eyes soon hardened within the accents of his black eyeshadow, "That doesn't say she won't eventually find out. You've been inactive for a few years now. Your sudden activity in the network is raising curiosity… and attention."

"I have that covered. It's a necessary sacrifice, after what's come to light," I said, waving off the aggravating eyes of those who cared to pay attention to me and shifting the dock's stone to obscure us further.

Suni was kicked out in the process.

"A lead involving your old man?" Roman asked.

I nodded.

The crime lord before me took a step back and cast his gaze to the side, letting the tip of his cane fall to rap against the brittle ground, "No wonder you're back on the radar. How long's it been?"

"Nearly five years since I inherited The Black Stallion," I replied.

Roman shook his head slightly and reached over, placing a gentle gloved hand on my shoulder before giving it a squeeze, "Kid, even _we_ couldn't find his killer. That incident's been buried in every way imaginable by both the council and the kingdom's officials. If you've finally found something… I don't blame you for pursuing it."

His hat dipped for a moment as he nodded to me, eyes meeting mine in an understanding veil of shadowed emeralds before he let his hand fall.

"But that's all personal business," he continued, turning away for a moment as he walked a few paces to the adjacent wall, "You wanted to meet with me on terms of official business."

He held out his arms as he turned around, sliding on his heel to face me once again before letting his cane rest against his shoulder.

"What does Niro Ezdeil require of Roman Torchwick?"

"I hear you've been siphoning the city dry of its Dust," I started, getting a proud nod from Roman in return.

"Yes, that would be me. It's a painstaking business, but worthwhile for what's ahead."

"I'm not interested in your plans, I just have a request," I continued, gaining his full attention again as I pulled up the screen of my scroll and showed him an image of the Maestro family symbol, one of the wealthiest families in Vale.

The crest was that of a shattered golden jewel. It's glowing hue emitted bolts of electricity, each strand tearing into the borders of the jewel's shell and shining in a reflective pale yellow to stand out from the gold background of the gem.

"Ah, the Maestros, the renowned family to discover one of the largest sources of Lightning Dust ever recorded," Roman replied, placing a swift hand under his chin as he met my eyes, "What business do you have with a wealthy family such as them?"

"My interest lies less on them, and more on their achievement," I explained, closing my scroll and pocketing it, "The location of their findings has been kept under secure guard ever since it was found. I'd like to know exactly where it is."

"Can't you sense it with that Semblance of yours?" he asked.

"If I knew what I was looking for, then I'd be able to pinpoint my goal. But as it stands, I'm only chasing a rumor right now," I said, returning my hands to my pockets as I turned away, "Figured with your interest in Dust, this wouldn't be too far out of your way."

"It won't be…" Roman sighed again, running a glove through his hair after taking off his cap, "But this is the Maestro family we're talking about. They come from a long line of prodigy musicians and conductors. Their newest fortune through Dust was one of the most obscure events to happen in the last century. I'm not saying I can't get this intel for you, but it won't be easy. I'll need compensation, especially since this is out of reach of your girl's information network."

"Call it a favor for a favor," I offered, voice retaining its lax state as I pitched him something he couldn't refuse, "You do something for me, I do something for you. It's a favor you can call in whenever you want, and I'll do whatever it is, within reason."

Roman's eyes practically lit up, almost overtaking the dark eyeshadow brimming their bright shades of green, "You have yourself a deal. I'd have to be insane to turn down a favor from you."

He reached out his hand and I took it firmly into my partially gloved one, confirming our contract with a shake of the hands before separating.

"I'll give you a call as soon as I get the coordinates," Roman concluded, fitting his bowler cap back onto his head before turning fully away, "For now, I believe it's time I flew the coop. Docks will be crawling with cops any minute now, judging by the sounds of those sirens."

Beyond the cracks of our bordered off meeting place, low howls of police sirens echoed out into the night air from somewhere deep within the cityscape.

It seemed the explosions and gunfire attracted the attention of half of Vale's police force.

Firing gatlings guns into pavement and brawlers would do that.

"Be seeing you, Roman. I'll be keeping an ear out for your call," I replied, giving Roman's form a small nod as he walked away.

"Don't forget about that favor you offered, kid. Destiny might have it that I'll be calling it in real soon. We'll see," Roman responded, giving me a wave over his shoulder before he slipped out of some recently opened cracks of our entrapment and disappeared.

"Favors are something I never forget…" I muttered.

A few moments later, one of the bullheads descended from the sky and landed behind a stack of containers, picking Roman up inside its central compartment before taking off.

His and one other were the only two remaining bullheads to make it out of the confrontation unscathed.

My business here was done.

The upturned pieces of the docks soon sunk back into the ground, residual dust quickly kicking back into the air before slipping back inside the cracks I previously ripped up.

Before long, the entirety of the docks was back to the way it was before I landed.

Oh… right… someone was bleeding out.

I made my way over to Ruby and Yang, the blonde's unconscious frame cradled in the reaper's arms with crimson blood pooling out around her knees. Its potent scent of iron permeated through the air in droves, enough so to bring any straying attention straight to the half-sisters.

As solemn as that was for Ruby, it only proved to wrap a small battalion of other students loosely around their spot on the ground.

Only one cast their glance up to me.

And that was Ruby herself.

All around her, a soft green glow overtook the shadows of her bangs and swept around Yang's weak body. A circling glyph of swirling motifs and symmetrical designs shimmered to life, emitting a resonating ring as the two within its grasp glowed the very same hue.

"That's the third one…" Weiss breathed out slowly, aura dwindling into the red.

For someone who stayed back for that whole fight, she played a surprisingly prominent role with her supportive glyphs throughout the whole endeavor.

"Is there anything you can do?" the reaper asked as I approached, Weiss's energy fading away as she used up the final remains of her accessible aura to try and heal the girl in Ruby's arms.

Do I look like a healer? Do you want me to twirl a staff, fan out my glowing wings, and heal your sister's wounds with a potent tether of golden light?

No, that was Anoel's job, or even Skyla's.

I don't save people… I can only hurt them.

Instead, I kept walking forward, more and more eyes soon falling on my silent form as I knelt down. Dipping my right knee into the warm liquid seeping into the stones of the dock, I scooped Yang into my own arms and stood.

"She'll be in Beacon's infirmary wing, rightmost building on campus from the gate, room 37."

And then I was gone before they could blink.

* * *

Anoel spent the rest of the night and the following day trotting through town, slipping through back alleys with her wings to find a suitable location to lay her trap.

Three museums down, two armories, and finally, the Valean Treasury.

She walked up to the treasury at dusk, staring up at its black metal gate and watching it bristle with high voltages of electricity.

The pathway to the front columns and foyer was guarded by several automated watchtowers with live guards patrolling the yard and stone walkways. Cameras were installed on every corner, every wall was outfitted with mechanical sentries, sensory lasers strung together in every entryway, and even the building itself had a magnetic disruptor that acted as a shield to prevent any external electrical signals from reaching anywhere past its outer gate.

The treasury itself was all guarded by watchful AI androids and target-marking cameras. All sensory systems within the building were upped in every way, marking up the rooms themselves and the treasures inside with a web of invisible, moving lasers and heat sensors.

It was the perfect place for who Anoel had in mind. This place was so tantalizing… it was impossible for her to pass this up.

With that thought, Anoel slipped inside and made her way to the most valuable object in the entire Valean Treasury.

An incredible gem rested before her eyes, glistening under the dim lights of its display case at the center of a circular, gold-embroiled room.

A fist-sized emerald, easily worth over 3 million Lien, unmarred and flawless in its bulletproof encasement.

This was the most secure display out of the rest of the treasures on show, let alone in storage.

Anoel opened the encasement, readjusted the pressure-sensitive plate beneath the gem to offset it with an additional few milligrams, and slipped a small cardstock note into place right beneath the gem itself.

Then she left.

By the time she finally planted her note, the day was gone and night fell across the city again. She made for Niro's bar once she left the main gate.

With that in place, she sent Ray's cousin a short text about a certain building's security entering a very rare window of maintenance for the next half-hour. If she was quick about it, she'd be able to get her hands on one of the most valuable treasures in Vale, if not _the_ most valuable.

It was the perfect bait, but it wasn't just to reel her target in. Anoel hadn't seen that girl for so long now… She wanted to catch up, now that she knew she was in town.

But what was the use in that if she didn't test her skills first? A thief losing their delicate touch? That was unheard of…

The head info-broker dipped down the street to Niro's bar and strolled in, the bar itself alive and bustling, despite it being so late in the night.

Yesterday's incident at the docks was easily ignored now, all new intel still feeding into her scroll about the event from her information brokers across Vale just filtered uselessly away.

The other ranks in the network could deal with that right now.

* * *

She waited there for an hour.

One of the downsides of having fire coursing through your veins was the inability to intoxicate yourself. With all its enviable perks and subtle immunities, it sickened Anoel sometimes when she couldn't dull her senses…

Even by the smallest margin. It would make things easier if she could.

The info-broker sat there, swirling a cool, icy glass around on its bottom edge and staring into its dark, amber hue.

She watched as a potent mixture of bourbon, whiskey, and water gently lifted against the edges of her glass and chimed with the soft clinking of freshly submerged ice, barely a sip taken.

Several more glasses of the same variety sat empty to her right, close to the center of the dimly lit booth table she waited in.

Any bustle and talk outside of her immediate senses were pushed out of her mind, her eyes having slightly lost their subtle brightness in the wake of yesterday's hack.

"Hey, Turq! Go stand by that dartboard!"

"What for?!"

"Here! Take this apple with you!"

"What the hell am I supposed to do with-"

"Don't worry, it'll be fun!"

Or rather, she only pushed out the less entertaining portions of her surroundings. The dull chatter of Niro's regulars didn't pique her interest like it usually did. Instead, she found herself waiting in a small bout of impatience.

"You'd think she'd be quick about a find like that…" Anoel muttered quietly, letting the bottom of her glass fall flatly to her booth's table before stealing a sip from its glistening rim.

The atmosphere of the room fell on deaf ears once more… save for the high-pitched shriek of someone across the room, then the thud of an apple.

"She's lost her touch," Anoel lamented.

A soft echo of sirens filtered through the walls of Niro's bar, nothing unlikely with where The Black Stallion was built.

Downtown western Vale wasn't the place for happy go-getter workers or residential families. This was the district for under the table trading and trafficking of goods and information. Mainly, though, it just served as the focal point for Vale's information network.

Something she herself heads and maintains, especially with its connections to the other three kingdoms.

"My eye!"

"I told you you'd be fine!"

The sirens were getting louder, screeching through the closed door of the bar's front face as Anoel turned and watched the glass windows rattle.

Police cars slipped by her field of vision, rushing down the dark street outside in dashing blitzes of blue and red lights.

"Damn, think a robbery just went down?"

"Nah man, no one's dumb enough to try that with the new security measures on the market."

"New AI droids finally got instated?"

"Only for stuff worth protecting."

"Ah, so like your mother's panty drawer?"

Another shriek slipped out into the quieter atmosphere of the bar as several more roaring engines passed the establishment's windows.

Anoel could only pick up her glass again as she tipped it into the passing lights from outside, "Well, at least she found it."

The long line of pursuit vehicles seemed to pick up pace and quantity, rushing by in even faster blurs before Anoel quirked a delicate eyebrow and turned her attention back to the front window...

"Oh… there she is…" only to see the window to the right of the door crash inward, shattered glass scattering across the floor.

Anoel waited a few moments before she gave the floor by the window a small, expectant wave, setting her drink down with her other hand.

A 5'5 heat signature finally stood up and brushed itself off, shaking strands of short hair out of its eyes before moving toward the bar.

Her heart rate was running rampant… and Anoel just watched as the invisible girl's diaphragm shook with labored breathing.

Fallen glass soon fit itself back into place behind her, floating and reforming the once broken window, but going entirely unnoticed.

"You couldn't have used the door?"

"Sorry, Niro," the heat signature returned, slowly decloaking as she strolled her way to the corner stool.

The girl's invisibility silently melted away as she took her small strides, a stark white duster coat now appearing in the light of the bar, enveloping a tight t-shirt of the same color. The article's tails flowed to the middle of her thighs, lapping against her legs as she came into view.

Distressed, faded blue jeans flashed across the way, letting lilac, high-top canvas shoes pad along the wooden floor before Anoel watched Niro rest his arms on the bar's countertop.

"Thirsty?" he asked, shining lime green emeralds glancing to the opalescent pink eyes of The Black Stallion's newest entry.

"Water," she replied quickly, brandishing her response with a small nod.

He nodded and fetched a glass from the shelf behind him, sliding a drink of quickly filled ice water across the table to the girl at the corner.

She smiled her thanks and tipped the glass up, downing its entire contents in just a few short seconds.

"Thanks."

"Use the door next time."

The girl licked her lips and slid the ice-filled glass back, pushing away from the bar, "Noted."

Those opalescent eyes fixed themselves on the furthest corner of the room as the girl made her way across it, slipping past whispers and staring gazes to make her way to her acquaintance in its booth.

The chatter in the room finally returned to normal as she left the other residents behind and made it to Anoel's side.

A fluttering piece of paper soon dropped to the table in front of the info-broker smirking up at the shorter girl.

"Cute love letter, maybe you should add some little kisses next time," the girl spoke, dropping her hands to the holsters running around her waist and unbuckling them.

"Little symbols never beat the real things," Anoel replied, sliding into her circular booth and pushing aside her drink, "Did breaking in really take that long, Lylac?"

Lylac dropped her holsters to the cushioned seat beside her as she slid in, light reflecting off two bronze six-shooters resting snugly inside them.

"No, but the three mile sprint to get here did."

"Weird, you always seem to have a lot of stamina in bed. Can't get in a few runs every once in a while?" Anoel asked, leaning back into the rounded booth's corner as she let Lylac press into her side.

"I think we both know that running from cop interceptors and the casual _business_ we get to behind closed doors are two very different things, Ano," she stated, wrapping her arms around Anoel's own.

"They're both healthy and give you a nice workout, Ly," Anoel replied with a small smirk, "And they're both fun on several levels."

Lylac smirked in response, "Can't deny that, but it's still a pain in the ass. Especially when there isn't any kind of getaway vehicle."

Anoel shrugged and rested her hand on Ly's thigh, "I'm not really into that, but try lube next time."

Ly chuckled in return, "Very funny, Ano. But those cops really were relentless."

"Not as relentless as I can be," Ano replied, smirk curling across her lips.

"True… but I'm not into that kinda kink either. Don't get me wrong, I love backdoors into security, but not _that_ kind of backdoor."

"You're not alone, I tend to avoid it. I'm not that adventurous either," Anoel rested her cheek in the palm of her hand, letting her eyes fall to Ly's slightly tanned skin and glistening cleavage pressed into her arm, "Looks like you've been in Mistral."

"Needed a vacation. We'd been working nonstop for months, figured we could use the break."

"Six years wasn't enough of a break for you?"

"Those years have been hell. I wouldn't exactly call it R and R."

"I suppose not… looks like you've been pretty busy," Anoel sighed, letting her slim hand wander down to pull Ly's legs up and lay them across her lap, "But… you two could've remained hidden for as long as you needed. What brought you back onto the grid?"

"Necessity. I'm sure you already know of the piece by now? Beacon's impossible to break into unnoticed, even for me. If there was any kind of other method, I would have figured it out by now." Ly's head rested against the padded back of the seat before rolling onto Anoel's shoulder, relaxing into the new position and taking full advantage of her new access to Anoel's slender neck and collarbone.

The info-broker let out a short breath and tilted her head away, revealing more of her pale skin and giving the girl free reign, "What makes you so sure the piece is in Beacon? You've been misled before by false leads…"

Ly distractedly danced her lips across Ano's porcelain skin before pulling back for a moment, "That's because my uncle told me himself."

"Orion himself, huh?" Anoel closed her eyes and let her hands explore the two lithe legs nestled overtop her own, "I suppose that's why Ray was so quick to join Beacon."

"Trust me, even with that knowledge, it was still a challenge to convince him," Ly replied, voice falling into a mutter as she nipped Anoel's collarbone, "As stubborn and bone-headed as his father ever was…"

"He doesn't fall too far from the Chroma tree, anyone can see that," Anoel said, nuzzling Ly's soft, blonde hair for a moment before leaning away, voice growing low, "Especially when something piques his curiosity…"

The lilac tips of Ly's hair swayed as she turned to face Anoel directly.

"What's he done now?" she asked in a groan, raising an eyebrow.

"He hacked my little sister."

"Little-Ano?"

Anoel nodded.

Ly pinched the bridge of her nose before brushing her hair behind her right ear, turning her head away for a short moment, "When I told him to make at least one friend, I didn't think he'd choose something as stupid as this…" she sighed, "What's the damage?"

"Nothing too severe, just rattled. He played the Sentinel card on her, and since she doesn't know about that whole grain of truth yet, it hit her pretty hard," Ano replied softly.

"I doubt he would raid any of her data, much less take her money. Though, if any data _was_ taken, he would have long since deleted it. Sparrow has been someone he's been rather merciful towards, in comparison to the others, at least."

"How many copycats has he come across?"

"You want specifics?"

"It'll save me from prying," Anoel returned.

"Too many. A little over 200 if the AI's information is accurate. Every single one of those poor bastards stripped of their reputation, money, and other essential things needed to survive."

Anoel sighed in annoyance, "Couldn't he have just piggybacked her post history? She owns that whole blog of hers, after all. Would it have been so hard to just trace her account info through there and find a link to her scroll?"

"I think the issue has something to do with the fact that A: He's lazy and doesn't like to pry if it isn't of immediate importance, and B: Beacon's network rests on a _whole other_ grid. He'd need access to that before he could trace it so easily."

"So hacking her was just for the kicks and giggles of it then…" Anoel brushed her delicate fingers up the jeans of Ly's inner thighs, gently caressing the fabric there, "He's inherited too many traits from his father. It's uncanny."

"I won't deny that he probably did it for fun," Ly gasped softly, letting Ano spread her legs apart, "but Ray wouldn't have done it if he didn't deem it so 'necessary', as he puts it. No doubt you know of his 'abnormality'?"

"You mean that thingy in our heads that gives us the urge to please ourselves with other women?" Anoel gave a sly smirk as she grazed the pads of her fingers over Lylac's pants zipper, "Of course I do… if only his kinks at least spanned somewhere beyond technology and hard-drives. I swear, he gets off from hacking into anything he can get his mind wrapped around."

"You're not wrong, but it's a _little_ bit more complicated than that," Ly pointed out, letting her left leg fall from Anoel's knees and locking its ankle around the info-broker's own.

"I know, but nothing changes what happened."

"I won't disagree with you there, he needs to be more careful. Playing with fire is most definitely going to get him burned." Lylac spared a moment to offer a playful wink in Ano's direction.

"Hmm, funny," Anoel stole a chaste kiss from Lylac's cheek before letting her smile fall, "I've already given him my first warning."

Lylac's eyebrows furrowed for a moment, eyes registering a moment of worry before she blinked the thoughts away.

"I assure you that your second one won't be necessary, knowing you like I do, you're scary when it comes to Little-Ano. Chances are that he's now just going to avoid her like the plague. And you, for that matter."

"You and I both know that I'd rather he keep his distance from Arex, but he's already contracted her for a job. I don't like getting between my sister and her interests. Until that's done and over with, I have a feeling I at least won't be seeing any of him for a while."

"Six years of hiding gifts one with many talents, most of which associated with staying remote. She'll get the money, no problem, but if she's after a face-to-face conversation, she's gonna be out of luck."

"Arex always prefers scroll transactions over physical meetings anyway, so nothing lost there. Even high-ranking official contractors have never seen her face."

Lylac chuckled, "That makes two of them."

Anoel let Ly's soft chuckle tickle her ears as she glanced across the room, casting her eyes over a sea of onlookers to catch Niro busily working away to tend to several more patrons, "Care to let a girl buy you a few drinks?"

"Well, I wouldn't say no. It's been a long night, after all," Lylac's hand dove inside her coat pocket before pulling out a fist-sized green gem, "Will this be sufficient payment? I have four of them already."

Anoel glanced to the glittering glass stone and smiled, "It'll do. Niro likes anything of that color, but he'll accept it either way for payment. Would you be willing to make your night even longer for me?"

She… had several more questions they never touched on yet.

"My apartment needs cleaning, but I suppose it can wait," Ly sighed, letting the gem rest on the table before climbing fully into Anoel's lap, straddling her.

"Need any help with that?" Ano asked, glancing up into Ly's eyes and letting her sit back once she got comfortable, "Cleaning can be a hassle."

"Only if you're offering, but I doubt it would get any cleaner with us there together," Ly replied earnestly, reclaiming Anoel's neck again as she leaned herself into her acquaintance's body.

"I'm offering, and I'm sure we'll figure it out. We have all night to."

* * *

 **Lylac is created and owned by '** **HydraFlow** **', and his collaboration with this chapter helped map out her entire dialogue with my character. So, he helped write that last scene, information-wise. Several of the actions were added after the matter.**

 **Hope it wasn't too heavy.**

 **On a side note, casually downplaying things is fun, and has become one of RH's key styles. Way too much of that took place this chapter XD.**

 **I see no problem with that.**

 **Oh, right, Roman was a thing. Yeah, he knows Niro. They have history.**

 **For now,** _ **Favorite**_ **and** _ **Follow**_ **.**

 **I look forward to seeing** _ **REVIEWS**_ **for this. You'll be introduced to a LOT of concepts of mine. Feel free to give me your thoughts.**

 **Cya XP**


	26. Fruitful

Rogue Huntsman

Fruitful

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Lylac sipped her virgin cocktail lightly, gazing at Anoel from behind half-lidded eyes, "So, how did you know I was back?"

"You hopped across town for nearly a week and stole over 19 crates of varying fruits, going through all that effort just to get the attention of the information network," Anoel sighed, watching Ly carefully place her glass down.

"Oh? Did I…? I steal a lot of things, how did you know it was me?" Ly asked cheekily, a grin beginning to crawl across her lips.

"Really?" Anoel slid her own glass to the side, watching Ly's grin play across her face, "7 crates of apples, 4 crates of nectarines, 5 crates of oranges, 2 crates of elderberries, and 1 crate of lychees. What half-witted thief would ever go this far for a grocery list?"

Ly's grin only grew, "Good question, you tell me."

Anoel breathed out, "You literally spelled it out for me."

"I guess my kleptomania has a mind of its own…"

Anoel climbed into Ly's lap this time, placing her hands softly on her shoulders to push her against the back of the booth, "You spelled out my name with fruit, stole the exact number of crates to match my age, _and_ you _also_ trekked through the streets to target the exact stores to physically _spell out_ the word 'SEX' on the geographical map of the _kingdom_."

"Did I win?" Ly asked, eyes turning up to meet Anoel's own.

"I don't know… you tell me," Anoel leaned down in exasperation, grazing her lips against the side of Ly's neck, "Which do you want? Me… or sex…? I know you're hungry for it after all that..."

"Is it so much to ask for both~?" Ly's tone adopted a singsong inflection.

"For you? Never…" Anoel smiled against the thief's skin, flaring her heat ever so slightly, "But I have to ask. Why fruit?"

"Oh Ano… isn't it obvious?" Lylac's smug grin couldn't have gotten any bigger, "I always knew you were a bit of a fruit…"

Anoel stopped and pulled back, taking that precious moment to give the girl beneath her a deadpanned stare.

"What?"

"I hate you…" Anoel couldn't believe this.

"No you don't," Ly responded, grin never falling, "I spent an entire month planning that out. _All_ for you. Did you like it?"

"A month of planning and a week of preparation," Anoel couldn't help but sigh again, settling her light weight back as she leaned away, "You do realize half the information network ships us… right?"

"Oh, absolutely, but given our history..." Ly leaned forward, slowly wrapping her arms around Anoel's lower back, "who can blame them?"

"You've been craving this for a while now, haven't you," Anoel returned, nestling herself into Ly's arms before draping her own behind the girl's neck.

"Who else would I go through all the effort of stealing grocery items for, all for an obviously terrible, but meticulously planned joke? You're damn right I've been craving it, last time I checked, it's been 18 months since we last met."

Anoel leaned into Lylac, dipping her lips down to barely graze the corner of the girl's smug smile, "I guess I better make this worth your while then… Can't have you sitting with your panties in a bunch for too long, _especially_ when they can be around your ankles."

"I think I'll need a little more alcohol before we slip into bed…" Ly winked, snaking her arm behind Anoel to grasp her cocktail.

"Oh, _Ly_ ," Anoel slid the cocktail out of Lylac's reach with just a brush of the hand, returning her full attention back to the girl against the booth's backrest, "Who said anything about you _waiting_ that long before getting what you want? I thought you were _craving_ it?"

"Oh, I am, but _I_ still need to hide from the boys in blue, they can be very persistent ankle biters if you let them." With her drink out of reach, Ly did the only thing she could do with her hands positioned the way they were.

She slid Anoel forward by the curve of her lower back and slipped her hands down the back of her jeans, taking a firm hold of what she found there.

"They won't be the only ones biting you tonight~" Anoel silkenly teased, tilting her head to further tempt Lylac into kissing her as she ground her hips into Ly's lap, "This is Niro's bar, cops don't have the balls to step foot near this place. Meaning… we have _all_ the privacy in the world."

The smirk occupying Ly's face suddenly dropped, "This is for the bad joke, isn't it?"

"Maybe~" Anoel's fingers found their way to the open buttons of Ly's coat, sliding the article over the girl's shoulders before kissing the revealed skin of Lylac's neck as she went, "You think I haven't been craving this too?"

"You're very forward about getting it on in an establishment, especially one run by Niro, of all people," Ly responded, her eyes switching from fluorescent rose gold to a glistening cerulean, "I like to consider myself as an open individual, but…"

Anoel chastely pecked Ly's cheek before pulling away, "I know, but Niro isn't one to get jealous. I've been trying that for years."

"So it's true?" Ly inquired curiously, tilting her head.

"Sadly, not as true as I'd like it to be," Anoel admitted.

"So it _is_ true?!" Ly gasped, only to get a shake of the head from the phoenix in her arms, only confusing Ly, "I leave the kingdom for over a _year_ and you two _still_ aren't a thing?"

"You know more than anyone how much I want that, but he just doesn't see it." Anoel's eyes, for the first time that night, melted into a soft pink, "Hell, I doubt he's even listening in on us right now."

"If Niro _was_ listening, then my drink will become alcoholic," Ly replied, tempting fate in the process.

A small thud suddenly sounded out behind them, causing the two to glance back at the table to see a glistening bottle of acolyte settling itself at its center.

Ly's focus then returned to Anoel, "You were saying?"

Anoel's eyes flashed orange as her cheeks flushed red, her expression quickly hiding in the crook of Ly's neck.

"Thanks Niro! I'll get you a black gem to match that emerald!" Ly called over Anoel's shoulder, giving the bartender a two-finger salute.

"I'll reinforce the windows when you do," Niro replied, only casting a momentary glance their way before mixing a round of several more drinks.

"He says that, but I have a collection of 19 little black gems with his name on it at my place," Ly whispered.

All she got was a small squeak in return before Anoel pressed herself further into Ly's body, holding the girl tighter to make herself smaller.

"You were hoping he'd hear all of that, weren't you?" Ly asked, feeling Ano nod against her neck, "Thought so, though, despite your best efforts, he's not budging either."

Anoel's body shifted ever so slightly as the heat in her cheeks deepened, "He probably only heard the word 'alcohol'."

"We both know he's not that oblivious to his surroundings, but I'll hold you to that the next time you get flustered." Ly's smug smirk returned to its rightful place on her soft lips, only to break with a small yelp after Anoel nipped her neck.

"He's just so dense!" Anoel whined against Ly's hot skin, eyes remaining in the orange as she sought out all the sensitive places of the girl's neck with a deft familiarity.

"You really _are_ head over heels, huh? Though I suppose you still have me when your frustration spikes again," Ly replied, slipping her slim hands beneath the hem of Anoel's shirt to travel up her bare back.

"N-no," Anoel replied hastily, but Ly could _feel_ the pout against her neck, "I-I'm just… we just…" a hot breath soon crashed against Ly's neck as Ano's shoulders deflated, "Let's just get you drunk and have sex already."

"You know, Ano… One of the many benefits of my Semblance is allowing me to detect slight color changes in my immediate area. This helps notify me when someone is lurking nearby, whether I need to allow more light to pass through my body, or when a _certain someone's_ eyes change color based off of emotion…" Ly teased, "You're not fooling me with that nonsense."

Anoel only groaned, "I forgot how _stupidly_ perceptive you can be sometimes. But if you know me so well, what does this mean?"

Ano leaned up and sealed her lips against Lylac's, pressing the thief back into the seat with a heated kiss.

As soon as that contact broke again, Anoel leaned back and gave the girl an expectant gaze.

"Means more drinking and less talking because you're horny."

* * *

Anoel and Niro were out, likely somewhere down in Vale. And with the weekend just around the corner, making it just today, tomorrow, and the next being the last days of the temporary break Ozpin gave the school after the siege, Arex wanted to start work on a few projects.

One of which she was just requested to do from last night's incident at the docks…

The groups involved were all questioned, but as soon as that was done, Arex found a certain reaper outside her door with a pair of battered, chipped, and bloodied golden gauntlets held tightly in her grasp.

It wasn't exactly a contract, but Ruby was entirely willing to make it one. She was willing to pay for it too. Arex didn't need the girl to go that far though, not after what she heard Yang did for someone they had only met that day.

Ruby was too distracted to even work on Ember Celica herself. She wanted to spend the night with Yang in her infirmary room.

It wasn't a hard decision. Arex accepted the broken gauntlets without a second thought and ushered Ruby off to go to her sister.

Now, she was out in town herself, working her way to her preferred hardware and weapons store she managed to stumble across early on in her forging career.

A pre-ordered collection of parts and tools lay in wait for her to pick up.

Only… that was the plan. Instead, something kept sidetracking her.

"Kit?" Arex hummed, turning her head in a fan of raven locks to find the spot beside her vacant of the girl she was just standing next to, "Where did she…?"

Light blue eyes dashed around before settling on a nearby storefront window to a café, familiar white strands of hair drifting softly against the shorter girl's lower back. A panda hat they had just picked up sat snugly on the girl's head, hiding away her ears and dangling long, fluffy mitten-paws down to reach the sides of her waist.

Two pale hands lay planted against the window, Arex noticing a curious gleam in the kitsune's eyes as she gazed inside its display glass.

"Come on Kit, if we take too long here we'll just be up even longer tonight," Arex said, dipping back through the crowd to reach her partner's side again, "We have snacks in the dorm. Good ones too."

Kitsuki's eyes still remained fixed on something inside the encasement in front of them, Arex getting no real response for several silent moments as the crowd behind them passed by.

Three fox tails that, ordinarily, would've been swaying back and forth were tightly wrapped and flattened around Kitsuki's waistband, appearing like a white, fluffy belt as its cover.

They were in town after all. Arex didn't want to bother with any discrimination here outside of Beacon.

The kitsune already gets enough of it from Cardin.

"Okay…" Arex sighed, glancing inside the window to try and spot out what exactly her partner's golden-orange eyes were fixated on, "See something you like?"

Kitsuki's reflection soon shifted slightly, and Arex watched as the girl pointed forward and toward a small peanut butter trifle in a glass that rested on the upper portion of the display.

"You want the trifle?" Arex asked, getting a tiny nod of confirmation from the girl beside her, "There was one of those in the gift basket Inuba gave us. Are you sure you'd rather have a store-bought one?"

Kit's eyes quickly closed as she shook her head, tossing her hat's panda paws around, _"I don't like Inuba's baking."_

"You don't? It was anything but bad," Arex responded, watching as Kitsuki eventually opened her eyes again and glanced her way, hands signing something else out.

" _It's too incredible, which detracts from the appeal. She's already at a level so high, there's no point in rating her. It's like there's little room for improvement for her anymore,"_ Kitsuki replied, eyes glancing back to the confections behind the glass once more, _"Do you… remember that person I brought up? The one I mentioned who used to bake things and cook things for me to try?"_

Arex nodded, "The one you said Inuba couldn't replicate, even if she tried."

" _That's because they tried over and over again, year after year, trying their hardest to get better with the few ingredients they had. They were at a level so far below Inuba, that it was their own little league, but I watched them keep trying, over and over again, just to find something that I'd like."_

She was there from the beginning… wasn't she… Arex tried to swallow a lump in her throat at the thought, watching Kitsuki flash through the signs of her words with a dull expression residing over her face.

"It was never about the taste… was it…" Arex realized.

Kit slowly shook her head, _"They got better every time, and I could taste the difference with each dish. But… they never really did end up finding something catered to me specifically, like they did for the rest of us…"_

Like the rest of them… Arex had never really found herself asking Kit directly about her past, and in retrospect, she'd never delve that far into something personal.

But hearing these bits and pieces of a life Kitsuki no longer seemed to have, it only turned these moments into heart-wrenching scenes of remorse for something she could've done nothing to prevent.

To be there, to taste the development as much as the improvement, to witness and partake in every blunder, every success, every morsel of effort… She was there to taste every twist and turn of this friend's effort, only to watch them go without ever achieving their goal…

She was afraid of ruining a memory she cherished in a dish made by a friend… Arex didn't need anything more for that.

She couldn't blame anyone in Kit's boots for being biased about something like this.

The phoenix grabbed Kit's hand and tugged her inside the cafe, hopping in line to grab them the trifle her partner was staring at, "Was this just… one of the dishes they made you?"

Kit nodded, _"It was the first one they tried because they found out I liked peanut butter… and that it was an easy dessert to make."_

"Did you like it?"

" _They somehow messed it up…"_ Kit replied, giving Arex a meek shrug of her shoulder, _"But I loved it anyway."_

"But they kept trying, despite all their mess ups, they kept going," Arex continued softly, getting another nod from the Kitsune beside her.

" _They refused to give up."_

Arex slowly nodded, the two of them moving forward in the line as they waited. She guessed, after all that, she only really had one thought… _Neither will I._

* * *

North-West Vale was considerably different from Western Vale itself. Houses were larger, businesses were less likely to be robbed, and tourism was more likely to occur.

Judging by the fact that Ly had led Anoel to a hotel, the info-broker could clearly see the girl was here to stay.

The building itself was tall, nowhere near as tall as the skyscrapers in Atlas, but tall nonetheless. The front of the hotel was decorated with trees, flowers, and shrubbery, all lining the lit stone pathway to the lobby's foyer. Anything to attract the Lien of those that decided to visit the crown jewel of Sanus.

"This is it," Ly declared, swaying as she tried her best to remain standing, "Home, sweet home."

The girl had downed most of the acolyte that appeared on their table at the bar, leaving her sobriety in a state of disarray.

"Leave it to you to nab one of the most pricey luxury suites on the market," Anoel chided, keeping her arms wrapped around Ly's side as the two walked together down the cobbled stone path.

"Don't - _hic_ \- assume I would buy one of those - _hic_ \- boring family homes, Ano," the girl replied, trying her best to stay serious, "I like my safehouses to have a bit of class."

"But you're also one who enjoys security, and in a home that stands alone, it has significantly less than a public hotel like this," Anoel replied, taking the first step forward to get the glass door for the girl pressed into her side, "Knowing you, all your little diamonds and gems feel more at home in a penthouse suite than a cold, multi-floor home that you'd never use. Oh, and before I forget, I can see all these bright lights appealing to your… tastes."

Ly turned to face her with a deadpanned glare, "One: The top three floors of this building - _hic -_ are only accessible via a private elevator only residents can access, and two: shut up."

Anoel's grin played prominently across her lips as the two slipped inside, letting the glass doors seal shut behind them as they entered the ambient atmosphere of the hotel's lobby. A marble statue stood elegantly at its center, surrounded by a floor of smooth, polished granite, and fortified with pillars running around the perimeter of the room.

Aside from those and the shining chandelier above, which was already graced with the wooden rails of balconies they couldn't see from the ground floor, the room was something Anoel could probably envision without so much as stepping foot inside the hotel herself.

It was fancy. Everything else just left her mind.

Ly's hand made its way inside her inner coat pocket, pulling out a glossy plastic card. It had her name, photograph, and room number prominently engraved and on show across its surface. She soon loosened herself from Anoel's grip and approached the attendant sat by the receptionist desk built into the back wall.

"Evening sweetie," she greeted the girl sat behind the desk, "I have a plus-one with me tonight and would appreciate it if we're not disturbed until late morning tomorrow. Is that okay?"

The girl behind the desk snapped her focus away from her terminal and straight to Lylac's pink irises, brushing a loose strand of chestnut-colored hair behind her right ear.

The two didn't fail to notice the light blush that painted her cheeks either.

"Oh, um... sure, no problem Miss Chroma. I'll…" she paused for a moment, leaning to the left to briefly peer at Anoel before returning her gaze back to Ly, "I'll let the house cleaning team know. Have a good evening."

"Thank you, honey. I'm sure Ly will remember this," Ly's plus-one replied, Anoel giving the girl a small dip of her hat before giving her a cheeky smile, "However, feel free to become the exception. Just knock before you come in."

A wink was all Anoel needed to add to have the girl shifting in a suddenly heated fluster.

Ly slowly returned to Anoel's side and directed her to the golden doors of the private residential elevator, swiped her identification card against the scanner, and stepped inside once the doors had opened.

As soon as the doors closed, Ly turned to her plus-one with a smirk, "She's gay, _definitely_ gay, she just doesn't know it yet."

"Oh, I think she _knows_ ," Anoel replied, pressing Ly against the smooth wall as the two slowly ascended 40 floors, "I just think she's never _tried_ before."

"She's missing out… maybe I can convince her to step out of that closet," Ly returned, winking cheekily as she ran a few fingers up the juncture between Anoel's legs.

" _Honey_ , it'll be as easy as asking her to come up to your room with you," Anoel muttered, pressing herself against Ly's body, "I can _sense_ as well as _see_ heat signatures and changes in body temperature. You don't have to be me to feel the heat leaking from between her legs."

"Converting her will be as easy as leaving a trail of breadcrumbs. Poor girl won't know what hit her until I snatch her and remove her clothes." Ly emphasized her point by unbuttoning Anoel's pants and tugging her zipper down.

"I'm sure you'll be more than enough for her to handle… but if we _really_ want her to convert for sure," Anoel slipped Ly's coat off, stealing the garment for herself before draping it over her shoulder, then dipped in low to whisper huskily into Ly's ear, "bring me with you."

Ly hummed softly, "I'm sure I can share my bed with the pair of you..."

"We'll be sharing a lot more than just the bed," Anoel replied without missing that beat of Ly's heart, glancing away for just a moment to see the twentieth-floor flash by in a golden hue, "I doubt she'll take the bait tonight, though. Maybe another time."

"She'll be busy hammering away at that keyboard until 6, thing is…" Ly's hands found their way to Anoel's curved hips, pulling her in roughly, "there's more than one place to have sex in my apartment. Would you prefer the hot tub? The shower? _Or,_ just the bed?"

Anoel hummed sensually as she let Ly pull her in, "All of the above?"

"Works for me."

* * *

The small chime of a bell rattled off as Arex and Kitsuki pushed their way into a weapons store with the sun setting in the window's background.

It opened into a cleanly cluttered storefront, its walls all lined with shelving units and a glass counter lay situated at the side of the store to their right. Short aisles of mechanical parts and materials resided in gondola shelving systems running parallel down the center of the store itself, leading to the back.

The walls were more cluttered than the central shelves, displaying physical adaptations of modernized weapons and blueprints of weapons in the making. The ones that were built and on show weren't typical weapons either, something Arex grew quickly fond of for a store like this.

The Nova family was infamous for creating unique weaponry that spun away from traditional arms.

Blueprints for impact yo-yos, collapsible scythes, extendable polearm bats, and even chained chakram blades rested high up on the walls Arex passed by.

One of the few to catch her eye was a high-impact, rocket-propelled orb with gravity fluctuation modifiers.

But she couldn't get distracted, not now. With a shake of the head, she kept going.

There was always a new design showcased every week. That one just happened to be the one on display _this_ week.

"Arex! I was wondering when you'd show up," a girl called out from behind the glass counter, another wall of weapons and designs situated behind her, "You usually pick up your orders within the hour. What happened?"

"Sorry, got a little sidetracked," Arex replied, letting Kit's hand slip from her own as she let the girl wander around the compacted room.

"Well, I have it all set and ready for pickup, but it's a bit heavy," the girl replied, green eyes glancing to the short, white-haired girl Arex brought with her.

Arex grimaced for a moment, "How heavy?"

She'd never placed an order this large before, especially for multiple projects instead of just one, so it completely slipped her mind to at least calculate the weight the order would create.

"80 pounds, give or take," the clerk replied.

Arex's grimace deepened, her own eyes glancing to Kitsuki for a moment, but even that didn't help quell the thoughts of the inevitable struggle back to Beacon.

"If you two wouldn't mind waiting around for another twenty minutes, I close up at midnight," the girl continued, gesturing to a scroll tv at the corner of the store that displayed the time, "I can bring it up to your shop if that's where you're headed."

"It'll… actually be coming back with me to Beacon," Arex replied, walking up to the counter herself with a quickly brewing guilt rushing through her eyes, "But really, that's too far to ask of you. We can figure something out to carry it."

"It's not a bother, honest," the girl quickly replied, short strands of dusty orange hair swaying as she shook her head, "I'd feel bad forcing a heavy crate like this onto you and that tiny little girl over there."

"Nyla, really, it's-"

"Nonsense, you've been coming in here for six years now, it's the least I can do for someone as valuable as yourself," Nyla adamantly returned, tipping up the rim of a snug snapback black cap that left her hair sprawling messily out from beneath it, "80 pounds is nothing for a girl like me."

Arex held back her next response and just let out a tight sigh, her head turning back to Kitsuki wandering the aisles behind her, "If it's really not a bother-"

"Not at all," Nyla chirped back.

"Then I guess it's fine. I can pay for it now as well, just to get that out of the way."

"Oh! No need," Nyla waved off, rolling up the sleeves of a dark green track jacket as she turned around, "Some boy in a beanie dropped by earlier and paid for your order. He didn't say why, but I assumed it was because it's his project you're working on this time around."

Arex's eyes widened for a moment before she numbly nodded her head, "He did?"

"You bet your cute butt he did, but he didn't utter so much as a word. He just dropped off a note, the lien, said goodbye, then walked out." Nyla's voice soon grew muffled slightly as she opened a door behind her and disappeared into the back of the store.

After a few moments, she reappeared with a hefty black crate held effortlessly in her arms, the size of it a foot and a half all around.

"Strange boy too, he almost felt cold, if you know what I mean. He lacked the liveliness I see in most people, even your distant self," Nyla continued, hard, knee-high black boots clicking flatly away at the ground as she rested the crate onto the counter, "Feel free to look inside, make sure I didn't miss anything."

Nyla stepped back with an energetic nod, letting Arex silently make her way to the crate and swipe her scroll across a panel at its central lid.

Silver seals quickly decompressed and unlocked, sliding open within the hard exterior of the container before the box's lid collapsed outward and slid open, revealing what was inside.

Raw materials coupled with a variety of tools were nestled cleanly in place within the crate, multiple layers of dark gray protective foam fitting everything together within the box's black felt confinement.

Spare parts for Ember Celica lay inside the box as well…

With only a peak into each layer, Arex closed the crate and let it lock itself up tightly, "Looks good, though, you're never prone to mess anything up to begin with."

"Awe, a compliment from you? Now that's rare. I guess you going to Beacon has already made its mark on your persona," Nyla replied with a smile, sliding the crate back into her arms as she nodded up to the tv, "I'll close up early today. You were my last priority for the night."

"Maybe just a little bit… I'm still adjusting," Arex responded, letting Nyla make her way around the counter and into the heart of the store.

"Everybody takes time to adjust, especially you. But that school will do you some good, I can tell," Nyla said earnestly, making her way toward the door with Arex behind her, "You even met that cute little darling over there."

Black, tight short-shorts sashayed back and forth as Nyla nodded toward Kitsuki in the next aisle over, two golden-orange eyes perking up in attention as the only other residents in the room passed her.

"She your partner?"

One careful green eye over Nyla shoulder managed to catch Arex mid-nod, "Y-yeah."

"Lucky her… and lucky you," Nyla commented freely, smirking all the more as she pulled the storefront door open with her boot, managing to turn its handle without letting go of the crate and open it just a smidge to do so.

Soon enough, Kitsuki made her way back to Arex's side to leave the weapons store, sneaking her hand back into Arex's own and getting a raise of an eyebrow from Nyla.

Especially given the fact that Arex hardly minded, let alone noticed it.

If Nyla knew at least one thing about Arex, it was the pure hesitance behind returning any kind of physical contact with just about _anyone_ , even her own sister. Seeing this only further proved that Beacon was having its effects on Arex in some way…

She was happy to see that.

Little sparrows have to leave their nests, after all.

"What's your name cutie?" Nyla asked, using her leg to push up and hold the crate in place against the doorframe as she closed and locked the door behind them. Everything inside soon shut off a moment later before the windows tinted into a heavy, reflective gleam.

When no response came, Nyla glanced toward the girl interlocking fingers with Arex and noticed a meek smile gracing her face.

"Shy?" the store owner asked, only getting an even meeker smile from Kit and a slight dip of the head.

"She communicates through sign language, but I already told her you never had the chance to learn any," Arex replied for her partner, pulling their interlocked hands out of sight as the two looked up at the taller woman before them.

Nyla was only two years older than Arex, three inches taller as well, but the difference in charisma and confidence was as clear as night and day.

"Oh, well if that's the case, I can read just fine. You have a scroll on you, right?" Nyla asked, getting a small startle from the girl before Kitsuki reached into the side of her boot and withdrew a collapsed black scroll.

"I guess that works just as well, then," Arex admitted, watching as Kit flicked her scroll open and typed something into her notes with her free hand.

Within a few deft taps, the short girl soon held up her message.

" _It's Kitsuki, and thank you for helping us. Arex can be stubborn."_

Nyla could only smile in return to that, "I know all too well, and for two delicate girls like you two, I'd do almost anything. This isn't a hassle at all."

Kit soon adopted a thankful smile and nodded her head, her chin still tilted up to stare at the taller woman before her. Nyla was six inches taller than herself, and the woman's boots only made that distance even further.

"Adorable…" Nyla vocalized in a breathless stupor, staring for just a few more moments before blinking and grinning, "Well, we have some time to chat then, Kitsuki. Beacon's a bit of a walk away, so we better start hoofing it if we wanna catch that bullhead."

* * *

 **So, uh, emotional rollercoaster of confusion? Interlacing silent trauma and sensual heat into a single chapter?**

 **Yeah… sounds about right.**

 **Sorry, sorta, but also not sorry. Quick, Hydra, say something.**

" **I regret nothing."**

 **Heh. Totally wasn't my idea... I** _ **definitely**_ **didn't rope him into this or anything…**

 **But seriously, that's just how those characters will interact with one another. Nothing more, nothing less, just them.**

 **For now,** _ **Favorite**_ **and** _ **Follow**_ **.**

 **I look forward to seeing** _ **REVIEWS**_ **for this. You'll be introduced to a LOT of concepts of mine. Feel free to give me your thoughts.**

 **Cya XP**


	27. Midnight

Rogue Huntsman

Midnight

«»

"Yo, Ezdeil, how long you keeping the place open for tonight?" someone called out, an empty glass soon sliding across the surface into my hand to quickly refill.

"Another hour and a half, give or take," I replied, tapping the full glass and sending it back down the polished wooden surface of the bar's counter before tending to other patrons.

Official hours for the bar have been set aside for the time being, considering Beacon's draining me of hours I could be using to run the establishment.

Instead, I have to stick to a tentative schedule of opening the Black Stallion whenever the hell I feel like it.

They still come.

Somehow.

Like they can sense when the damn place unlocks its door.

But that's not unheard of in this sector of Vale, given how quickly information spreads from an epicenter like this. It's home-turf to a lot of info-brokers after all.

Anoel's always had her work cut out for her, running Sanus's information network like this.

And despite the bar approaching its hour before closing, it was still as busy as it could accommodate. It created a needed atmosphere to cleanse my mind from Beacon's festering poisonous air, nothing but toxins bundled together in a sea of blurry colors.

I didn't have to think of a place like that while I was here, at-

Something dark suddenly blanketed the patrons by the door, seeping in through the glass in a hazy mist before dissipating entirely.

Great… and here I thought I could get away from Beacon for a while.

The darkness of the night outside deepened as the door opened, a figure immersed in a bristling darkness stepping through before the shadow melted away from his physical, invisible energy.

It was the white-haired prince of estrogen fandoms across the globe himself.

With any luck, he was only here to stab someone, but knowing my luck, he was here to throw lien at me until I gave him what he wanted.

A hangover.

"Hey, three more rounds over here, same drinks as before!"

Another order came in from someone to my right, tearing my eyes away from the door and to one of my patrons leaning against the corner of the bar. The rest of his party sat bustling together along a couple of the booths behind him.

For a brief second, I actually had to take a moment to recall what he ordered before.

But only a brief one.

Ignoring the sack of tainted bones by the door, I made my way back to the drinks beneath the bar and the shelves behind me and started mixing an assortment of rounds at the man's request.

23 were done within a few seconds, all already on their way to their tables at the back through the aura-based system I had set up across the ceiling. Inside the shadows of the roof were shining beams of solidified green light and polygonal crystal manifestations, all doing the work for me with only a simple passing thought.

"Thanks man, you're the best!"

I let the patron get back to his party, sliding himself back into his booth just as another patron tripped out of the booth opposite his and lost his pants.

He seemed to be unconscious… and no longer breathing.

He'll probably be fine.

My eyes finally turned back toward the door, lungs tensing to see Dante had moved from his position at the entrance.

Damn, he didn't leave.

I ignored the invisible black smoke drifting across the floor of the room, cutting it out of my immediate senses and burning it away with my own aura across the floorboards. The shifting waves of shadow billowed out at a slow rate from the bar's furthest stool, at the bend closest to the door.

Looked like I actually had to somewhat acknowledge his existence… if even that.

I guess I had to put up with him for the next hour and a half.

"Want something?" I asked, eventually turning toward the last thing I wanted to stumble across tonight.

He looked shocked… a processing stare leveled at me from his stool.

I'll show you shocking, let me throw on a pink shirt and grow a few leprechauns in the backyard. Contrary to what he probably believed, I don't punt kittens for a living. I own a bar. Big shocker.

"Oh. Well… Shit. Hi?" his mouth moved but his eyes remained fix in a wide-gazed stupor.

And here I was thinking his mind worked faster than his mouth.

Spoken like a true master of motivational speaking too, if he was a squirrel high on Dust-laced nuts, "Name a drink, I have it. Pay the lien, and you can drink it. No formalities needed."

"You work here?" he asked, leaning forward for a moment in his seat, trying to get a closer look.

I wasn't a Wonder of the World, asshole. I'm Niro.

"I'm the owner," I replied simply, keeping my voice from dipping as low as it usually would with him. This place was sacred.

Keep your claws off my old man's establishment.

"Heh… That's pretty cool. How'd you come by it?"

"Inheritance."

It played into the literal sole reason why I'm even at an infested little cliffside like Beacon Academy.

"Family business? I mean, Black Stallion. Kinda works with your whole…" he said, motioning his hand in circles towards me before eventually saying, "thing."

He can't even find the right words to finish his own sentence.

"My father named it. I run it now."

Dante blinked for a moment before lowering his hand, "His time to retire?"

"Wasn't his choice. What do you want to drink? I can serve you anything, mix you anything, even enough to kill you if you give me the lien for it," I explained, carefully cleaning a glass in my hands before putting it away.

"Oh? That so...?" he watched my movements with an intrigued eye before humming, "What's your top five best?"

"One of the strongest percentages of alcohol content I have is a mixture of concentrated acolyte and hard whiskey, finished off with a dash of aura-stimulant. It's on the top list," I nodded my hat up to the menu board of drinks shining across the top of my bar behind me, "among the rest of the forbidden items. All of their contents are listed."

"Leading with no-fly list items? A game of chicken right off the bat?" Dante smiled, "You interest me."

I interest him… "I punched you. You didn't die. You can take a few of my drinks standing, no problem."

Unfortunately.

"What? A first even for you? Actually, no, I can see that. That could have killed someone. Or horribly disfigured someone's body. And internal organs. And definitely the bones."

"If they have aura, it usually just shatters that shell and erases their arm, taking half their body with it. You took it with just your hand, despite having more aura in you than the majority of the school," I returned.

Nobody deserved to be hit by a strike like that. The few who did, despite them committing some of the most atrocious, inhumane atrocities in their lifetimes, died in an instant with half their body ripped away.

It was a brutal way to go out.

Dante was right, though, with what he said.

He was the _first_ to deserve it.

"Whoa… That's pretty cool. I mean, not cool for the person on the receiving end, but man, what a picture," he commented, eyes likely painting the image into his mind.

"I'm beginning to think you're not actually thirsty…" I muttered.

"Nope, I am," Dante replied, giving a short hand-gesture with his hand as he returned his attention to me, "Just kinda sorta making small talk in between."

"There is no in-between when you don't have a drink to start with."

I felt someone glance my way so I turned and caught the called out order of another patron by the dartboards, taking a moment to fix up a quick drink and place it on the bar.

The polygons in the ceiling quickly solidified and crystallized, branching down to take the drink in a quick transfer system to the one who wanted it.

Keeps me from hiring people to deliver drinks when it's unneeded. That, and I didn't trust patrons walking around with my alcohol coursing through their bloodstreams.

Not with a glass in their hands, and especially not when they were all armed.

"Starting with the hard beverages? Or do you actually want to work your way up," I asked absently, trying to keep myself detracted from the raw eminence of breeding irritation every time I looked at his face.

"Is that even a question?" he asked rhetorically, planting his hand down, "Hard drinks."

"Rectified Sin it is," I replied, assuming he wanted the third strongest on the list.

It was a highly concentrated blend of ethanol, purified through repeated distillations. Essentially just a long process of rectification, one of the few things I have the patience for.

"96.6% ABV. I'll give you a pint," I stated before cleaning, cooling, then sliding him a full glass of Rectified Sin.

"Hehaha! Sweet!"

I wonder if that'll kill him… It's in the danger zone for anyone over the age of "alive".

Then in a swift display of insatiable thirst, he downed the pint in seven seconds, chugging like a fish. As soon as he finished polishing the drink off, he lowered it and shuddered with a satisfied, shaken hubph-ph.

That was the last time I'd ever waste the mental energy to internally describe the incoherent sound he just made.

"Whoahoho! I like it!" Dante exclaimed in an intake and outtake of fresh air.

It didn't kill him.

A blissful smile sat leisurely on his face before he lifted his glass and threw it downward, "Another!"

That little shit. The floor of the impact zone quickly erupted in a small cluster of fragile polygons, ready to catch the glass as soon as it landed… Only for him to catch it himself with a smug smile on his face.

"Ah! Got you!"

My eyes only narrowed, "Do it again and I'll get you a sippy cup," I replied, letting my aura melt back into the floorboards.

"Lighten up chuckle brother. I wouldn't have actually done it," he responded, bringing the glass back up and placing it on the bar's surface, "Consider me making you tense up a bit of payback for the punch. I have a twisted sense of humor at times."

That's not the only thing twisted about you.

Instead of refilling his glass, I slid him the full bottle of Rectified Sin, "If you want more, just pour it yourself. Just keep a tab on how much lien you're drinking."

"Oh yes. Here we go!" He delved right in.

I was still hoping the next two drinks up would kill him after this one was done. They were all the most expensive as well, given the usually high probability of certain death.

The contracts that a patron would need to sign are both plastered up next to the list itself and resting in a stack beneath the counter.

But just for Dante… he didn't need to sign his own contract to ensure it wasn't the bar's fault for his death.

I _wanted_ to kill him.

The next drinks up were the equivalent death probability of chugging down a keg of Dust-imbued cyanide.

Knowing my luck, though, all it'll result with is exactly what I assumed earlier. Him throwing lien at me while I gave him what he wanted.

Profits are going to spike tonight.

"That had some kick to it. Damn…" he said, pounding his chest twice while sliding aside the empty bottle, "What else you got for me?"

"Next one on the list is Devil's Mistress, which is the mixture of acolyte and whiskey I mentioned," I stated, drawing out a new glass and mixing up the second strongest drink I had listed.

Once that settled, I added the splash of aura-stimulant and let it cloud into the glowing, golden hue of the beverage's contents.

Aura-stimulants had been banned from consumer use since the war, considering how many soldiers overdosed on the battlefield after going berserk. It was developed in Atlas for their front-line brigades, but now, it was regulated by the Kingdoms and restricted to medical fields only, allowing a few exceptions.

It was applicable to be used by licensed bar owners.

Its main function was to enhance the chemical attributes of what it mixed with. Like Aura. And given Aura's passive healing factor, it made recovering for huntsmen all the more efficient inside a kingdom with medical centers.

I planted that down in front of Dante, a soft, shining light bristling out from between the clinking ice cubes I usually add to change the taste of the overall drink as they melt down.

Instead of the usual ice cubes though.

Just for Dante.

I froze pure ethanol for him.

"Sweet suffering succotash it glows…" he rattled off while staring intently at the clinking amber liquid, "Why the Aura though?"

"It adds the glow, but it also strengthens the alcohol concentration by acting as its catalyst. It has an attribute that draws out energy within a substance," I explained, letting the ice melt a little, "Whether it be inside our bodies or inside a pool of liquid."

"Alright alright…"

He brought up both hands and rapidly slapped the sides of his jaw, then took the drink up and downed it like the last one.

He let out another satisfied, incomprehensible shudder of enjoyment before twirling the glass and letting it revolve for a moment atop his palm, "Not gonna lie, that was brilliant. What's the most popular drink in here that won't kill someone?" he asked, gnawing on the ice cubes quickly one after another.

Remember that squirrel high on Dust-laced nuts? Yeah… if only I could deforest his home.

"Most popular is a drink called Liya, a mixture of whiskey, bourbon, and water. Served with ice."

"And which majority likes that one more? Girls or guys?"

"Both. It's popular due to it being a socializing drink that looks appetizing, but it retains a kick to it that patrons enjoy," I replied, crossing my arms behind my bar as Dante chewed through the solid ice cubes from his glass.

I wondered if he inhaled them too fast to notice they weren't even water.

"I'll keep that in mind if ever I bring a date sometime."

Don't forget to bury their body when you're done with them.

"Your tab's racking up. Do you have the lien for all this?" I asked, though, I wasn't at all curious. I was pulling a page out of Anoel's book.

This kid had lien, if his car was anything to go by. And knowing his irritating strife to be a part of this world, he probably has a strong income alongside that.

"Uh… Let's see… How much are we at?"

"Considering the drinks you've had so far were among the most expensive, due to the certainty of death factor, you've racked up enough to cover half a pound of Atlesian silver plus a Mistrian Cigar collection."

"Exact numbers man."

"About 27,000 lien," I glanced back to him and gave him a quick summation.

His eyes widened at the number, "That much?"

"The high price is to dissuade patrons from drinking to their death."

"Ah right right…" he seemed to understand, "Cool then."

Dante slid 8 lien cards my way without hesitation, so I took those and dropped them into the pile of the rest of today's earnings.

Nobody would steal from the bar. Cops don't even go near it on foot, so locking the lien up was pointless.

"And that was just two of five. Three left I guess. What else you got that's capable of killing a man?"

"A six-shot revolver and a stash of D4 in the back," I returned, but I turned back to the board for a moment and nodded up to the list again, then tended to a few quick rounds of drinks for patrons down the line of the bar, "Just read off a name, I'll tell you about it."

"Oh! What about… Cynthian Ale! What's up with that one?"

"It's not your traditional ale. The water and herbs used to brew it are from a small village southwest of the kingdom, grown under unusual circumstances due to the spring water there. It's fifth on the list but still strong. It's popular among veteran drinkers."

"Popular and strong, huh…? Alright, let's give this one a go. I'll take three."

The three pints were already poured, foaming down the sides of the glasses as I planted them in front of Dante, a dark, crimson red hue of color shining through the drinks.

"Crap man… I keep forgetting how fast you are," he said, working on the first pint.

It wasn't a surprise to see him finish off all three with ease.

"Next one up?" I asked.

"Oh yeah, totally. Got to hand it to you though, good touch with the sweetness. Really thirst quenching too. Did you come up with everything?"

"Not that one. I import that from the village of Cynthia itself. They're the ones to brew it. I create the majority of the rest of the drinks, if I don't collect them from exterior sources."

"So how do you go about getting barrels?" he asked, sliding the three empty pints to the side, "Payment? Trade off's of sorts?"

"The village is well-off, but they lack protection. I supply that in return for the products of their brewery."

"Mmmm. Like the barrier we put up near the eastern mountains outside of Vale. Well, on the mountain to be more specific. Mountain village."

I already heard enough of his associated estate from Anoel, I didn't need to hear it again, "Cynthia's barrier is similar to the field I put up around Beacon's outer forests. The invisible array of strands that allow those with aura, and creatures without, to pass through."

"Like shredding paper. Fun. Ours just incinerates things entirely. Actually, on that, you do odd jobs besides running this place? I mean, if you go out that far, you must, right?"

I leave the incineration to Anoel. That was her realm.

"None that would interest you."

"Afraid I'll snatch a job from you?"

"I don't take jobs out there for lien. I take them for sourcing my business here at the bar. If you're looking for work that'll earn you lien, try asking around the information network."

They'll direct you to the nearest place to donate your organs after selling your soul to a nine-year-old with a chain-scythe.

"Noted. So then… next would be… Dark Laerze? What's that?"

"Dark Laerze," I restated, titling the name of the next drink on the list, "Sourced from Vacuo, made from sugar cane and dark-roasted cocoa beans. It's a bitter-sweet drink, but that clash is what puts it on the list."

"Very nice…"

I poured him a single chilled pint for this one, sliding it his way, "95.2% on its own."

"Always up for a challenge," he said, raising the glass. He took his time with this one, "I've only heard tales of beverages that come out of Vacuo. Let's see if they live up to them."

Vacuan alcohol was some of the most distinct across the four kingdoms. Dark Laerze was one of their specialties.

"So you mentioned sourcing business at your bar. Am I correct to assume part of, if not a majority, of the info net in Vale comes through here?"

"It's the focal point, basically a hub for the info-brokers in the kingdom to share information," I returned, setting the empty pints that have been piling up down onto my side of the bar.

"And you'd clearly know of things going in and out of here. 'People', to be more precise."

"I head the bar here," I replied simply, nodding to the rest of the room with a slight tip of my black hat, "Their business is their own, I'm just the median. It's Anoel's job to handle the information. That being said, nothing is uttered in here without me hearing it."

My eyes returned to Dante, seeing him slide his current pint around. He was hesitant about where this was leading.

"What do you know about a huntsman garbed in midnight blue?"

The last syllable of his words was met with a resounding silence settling over the rest of the bar. Each patron on either side of Dante suddenly scooted their stools away from him, as if his very presence was suddenly an invitation for death.

They weren't wrong if they thought that.

The rest of the establishment just stopped what they were doing and stared.

"The Midnight Huntsman has been brought up a few times in here, but only rumors. The name alone is a hefty weight to know, let alone speak freely," I said, crossing my arms as the attention shifted in the room, "He kill someone you know?"

"No. I went out on a task Ozpin sent me out on concerning a village with supernatural happenings and occurrences. I dealt with the problem, but the villagers tipped me off to a village with potentially the same problem. So I headed on over."

He was the white swordsman drifting about in name, then, the one that saved the village. Anoel heard about that incident today when she was in here earlier, but identification of the figures involved was unknown.

It was all resolved in the past 24 hours.

"Fire and ashes were all I found. That… and him. Before I even had the chance to ask him his business, he shot a woman that was trying to escape. Didn't take too kindly to that so I decided to engage him. Whoever he is… he's good. Real good. I think he shot me? Can't seem to recall…"

"Information about him is impossible to come by due to either all witnesses being killed or, for the few who actually survive an encounter, the sudden phenomenon of that information slipping from their conscious grasps. He's a shadow, whatever's known about him has only ever been the end-results he leaves behind in his wake."

"How long has he been around? If one were to guess at least..."

"15 years. He didn't exist in any information network before then," I replied, feeling the initial unease in the bar's occupants slowly dwindle away.

Few began going back to what they were doing, albeit at a quieter volume.

"15 years and no one's caught on to this guy? Unbelievable…"

"Several have died trying, all just adding to his kill count," I said.

"How many by now?" he asked, meeting my eyes, "Hundreds?"

"22,384 dead by his hands."

He seemed shocked almost. Frustrated even.

"That's not right man… That many? And for what exactly?"

"It's unknown. That's why people are either searching for answers or avoiding his name entirely."

"I've run into some real pieces of work… But this? This is a whole new level entirely. Human wise at least. If he's even that."

It wasn't anywhere near as bad as what happened during the earliest years of my childhood, but these murders were at this man's personal hands, not of anyone or anything else's.

It was a kill count he's built up with the intent to do so, but the prospect of him having an ulterior motive is what circulates any real curiosity about the Midnight Huntsman.

Unfortunately, that curiosity was a cursed one.

It often got people killed.

"What's your take on it then? He's obviously up to no good, and that's putting it lightly. So? Thoughts?"

"His intents are his own and what he intends to do is up to him. If you want to stop him, then you're not the first to try. He's set on something. I couldn't care less about what that is unless it directly involved me."

"Heh. You never know. I mean…" He leaned in a bit closer so he could lower his voice in volume, "You aren't exactly normal. If anything, you're a freaking anomaly that very few would like to understand."

"I live under a simple state of mind," I returned, narrowing my eyes beneath the shadow of my cowboy hat, "You take someone else's stuff, I don't care. You take _my_ stuff, I ruin you."

"Simple indeed," Dante replied, tossing a small smile to the side as if he expected that kind of answer, "Not that there's anything wrong with it. Simple is… good. I'm definitely going to keep an eye out for MH from now on. But can I rely on you to send anything my way?"

My luck's been running pretty short lately, but with any of it left, maybe the Midnight Huntsman would kill Dante.

I can only hope for the best.

"If you're looking for the sympathetic kind, you're looking in the wrong place. If there's no association or nothing in it for me, then there's no reason for me to even get involved," I explained coldly, but honestly.

It had nothing to do with me right now.

"Then what would you require from me?"

"Nothing you currently have to offer."

"You'd be surprised with how many unexpected things I can offer."

"Then prove it. Otherwise, it's all of no concern to me." I glanced toward the rest of the bar, my eyes dissuading any lingering onlookers to go back to what they were doing and return to their drinks, "I'd recommend you to leave soon. You spooked the whole establishment."

"Well excuse me for being a nuisance…"

He held back there. He should stop holding his tongue from the things he means to say, rather than what he wants people to hear.

Certain words were left unsaid.

"Let's see then…" he said, narrowing his gaze behind me before that gaze quickly widened, "No… Seriously? I mean, that's not disappointment talking. That's just the bit of surprise in me. That's honestly first on the list?"

He was less observant than I gave him credit for, but I nodded anyway, "Got a problem with that?"

"Not in the slightest. Again, just… wasn't expecting it," he settled back into his stool, and from the looks of it, was going to have one more drink before he left, "I love Saké."

"Anything else?"

"Two cups, if you don't mind."

"As long as you're paying," I returned, two empty glasses already resting before me.

"Oh, I'm paying."

I drew out the one alcohol the bar probably held most highly, then poured Dante two chilled glasses of his request.

Then slid them his way, one of which he slid back toward me.

"You paying me to drink my own alcohol?" I asked, eyeing him as he retracted his hand.

"I can pretty much tell you wouldn't accept a gesture of goodwill from me. At least, not yet. Or possibly ever. Point is, you'd refuse me outright. For now. So until I in some way prove some form of worth or value to you, this will have to do."

"There's only one person on this Remnant I'm actually fond of and respect. Do you really think it'd be feasible to join that person on the list?" I challenged.

"I do. Eventually. As long as the opportunity arises, I'll manage it. You may very well be the chilliest ass I've ever met… but a pretty okay dude overall. And in my own way, I respect and recognize your worth as a person, however much I may know currently."

He knows nothing about what I'm responsible for… what I'm atoning for…

Only she does.

With his words spoken, he slid forward the last of the lien cards he'd pay me tonight and I took his offered drink up into my hand.

He can certainly try.

But I realized one thing after all that.

We were both atoning for our sins.

* * *

 **Disclaimer: Don't make ice cubes out of pure ethanol. It's probably impossible and defeats the purpose of ice cubes in an alcoholic beverage, but Niro happened to do it. Just don't do what Niro did in this chapter. Also, anything above 80% ABV is deadly on its own. So, don't drink that.**

 **On another note, Andy, Hydra, and I all agree that 1 US dollar is equivalent to 100 Lien in the rwby-verse (similar to Yen in Japan).**

 **In case you want to run your own conversions. It's always been pretty unclarified for the show.**

 **The rest of this A/N is an announcement.**

 **WARNING: Longer A/N due to an ANNOUNCEMENT.**

 **As of April 23, 2017, at 12:09 PM – EST – a guest submitted a review on chapter 5 pointing out most of the hints I dropped in regards to Niro's prowess and his Semblance.**

" **Russian Bias** **" (would've responded if I could, but they submitted the review as a guest and their name doesn't exist in FFN's search directory) is the first to ever accurately get close to guessing what Niro's capable of and what his Semblance is from the story's content alone.**

 **Huge kudos to them for spotting out what I had out there and putting things together.**

 **However, they only managed to define the basis. There's still a lot left out.**

 **In my opinion, there's a certain novelty to reading RH without the knowledge of what Niro can do. I like the impact of seeing something that he does and not expecting it over trying to expect what he'll do next.**

 **To that regard, people can still guess, but I won't be publically confirming anything. If you're curious, and don't mind losing that novelty, then you can check out Russian Bias's review.**

 **For now,** _ **Favorite**_ **and** _ **Follow**_ **.**

 **I look forward to seeing** _ **REVIEWS**_ **for this. You'll be introduced to a LOT of concepts of mine. Feel free to give me your thoughts.**

 **Cya XP**


	28. Bejeweled

Rogue Huntsman

Bejeweled

«»

"You two be good, you hear? It'll be a nice cool night tonight, so don't stay up too late and get a little shut-eye if you can," Nyla called out with a wave, eyes bristling with mild worry as she leveled them on Arex, "Especially you. Don't keep Kit up too late."

"I won't," Arex replied, slightly hiding her face behind her hand as she shook her head.

Kitsuki was only nodding in affirmation as she watched the doors slide open behind Nyla, then waved back as the woman stepped out and took her leave.

Leaving the mostly empty, massive forge room in silence.

The only other occupant was Ray Chroma on the other side of the forge room from Arex and Kitsuki.

"She carried the crate all the way through campus after taking it to the bullhead with us…" Arex sighed, peering out from behind her slim fingers at the black box resting on her workstation.

Kit soon dipped into view and signed a quick phrase with a smile, _"I like her."_

The phoenix could only roll her eyes at that, "I know. She's… different, but she tends to take a liking to people."

" _She's taken quite a liking to you, Arex,"_ Kit signed, her tiny smile soon widening as she stepped up onto a stool and plopped herself down onto it, _"She's really nice too."_

"Only to people she likes," Arex replied, finally taking that moment to re-open the box of pre-ordered parts and tools, "She puts up a front for the rest."

" _Do you think she put up a front for me?"_

Arex pulled out the tools first, removing the padding beneath them a moment later as she went to work unpacking the delivery crate, "No. I can tell when she puts up her front after so long of knowing her. She likes you."

Kit's smile brightened, her hands soon tugging over the tools laying out across the foam panel and organizing them across the station.

Whenever Arex pulled something new out, Kit slid it over and organized it. The tools remained in their own individual sector of the workbench, leaving all the parts organized by project in their own sectors. To divide each portion of the workstation, Arex turned on the scroll built into its surface and let Kit draw the straight white lines to separate them.

After a little while, the crate was finally empty and stashed away beneath the workstation with the other storage units. She'd have to return the crate once she could.

For the time being, Arex had a request she needed to fulfill.

Off to the side, resting on the hardened parts of the workbench to be used as an anvil, sat the dull glow of a chipped, scratched, and dented pair of golden gauntlets.

The blood that once tainted their metal panels had already been wiped off, leaving behind a bullet-indented rendition of what used to be a pristine set of weapons.

Kitsuki silently reached over and picked one of them up, causing a quiet digital wave to pass through the large scroll beneath it. The dispersing pixels soon brightened and projected upward, tracking the movement of the gauntlet before encircling it in an array of dimensional numbers, a scale, calculated weight, and listed materials.

"That's Ember Celica," Arex absently commented, swiping through the blueprints across the surface of the table and opening up a few files under someone else's name, "Yang's weapons, from team RWBY."

Kit set down the gauntlet, watching as the numbers and projections followed it, _"Ruby's half-sister."_

"They might as well be called sisters, but you're right. Ruby was the one to request Ember Celica's repair while she looked after her sister in the infirmary," Arex explained.

" _I'll call them sisters then,"_ Kit replied, taking a glance to the far door for a moment, where the infirmary sat on the opposite end of campus, _"Will she be okay?"_

A large projection soon emerged from the table and Arex brought it up to float in the air, enlarging it from there.

It was a clean representation of Yang's finished gauntlets in all combat forms, as well as disassembled.

"The school is equipped to deal with any kind of injury, so I'm sure she'll be fine," Arex said, eyes analyzing what she was working with, "She has the weekend to recover."

" _She's tough,"_ Kitsuki signed back, watching the same light projection Arex was fiddling with before transitioning her golden-orange eyes to Arex herself, _"like you."_

Arex grimaced at that, "I'm not tough. I'm easily physically drained by my Semblance, and my usage of my abilities are all incredibly inefficient. I have no endurance, lack in physical strength entirely, and almost broke under one heavy hit from that Hydra."

In fact… Arex did break under that hit, several of her hollow bones were fractured on impact. It was Skyla who healed them.

Arex didn't know if the school would've been able to handle something like that so readily.

" _I wasn't talking physically,"_ Kit continued, eyes dropping away from Arex now as she tugged her panda hat off, _"You're surprisingly strong mentally and emotionally."_

The phoenix's gaze widened for a moment, yellow irises flashing to Kitsuki as she set her fluffy hat aside, letting her ears flick around and stretch, "Despite… what?"

How much did she know?

" _It's just something I've picked up on, is all,"_ Kitsuki offered in response, meeting Arex's gaze with her own again and getting Arex to quickly look away, _"I like seeing that in people."_

Arex's cheeks tinted slightly in a scarlet hue, "R-right…"

She immediately got her warm hands working by disassembling the physical Ember Celica on the workstation.

"I do too."

Kit smiled as she watched Arex work, a small flame of intrigue and interest flickering in her shining eyes as she paid attention to everything her partner did.

The kitsune's irises seemed to reflect the haze of the fire at Arex's back, the furnace burning brightly in the segmented forge Arex worked with. The heat pleasantly warmed Kit's flowing tails, all three flicking absently back and forth behind her as she watched.

After an hour, Arex reached out for a moment and glanced up from the spare parts across the station, "Here, gimme your hand."

Kitsuki's ears perked up briefly, but she didn't hesitate to reach forward and nestle her fingers into Arex's own.

Without knowing what Arex had in mind, the kitsune watched as Arex lifted her hand up by a small margin before holding it there.

Off to the side, Arex dragged over the digital rendering of Yang's Ember Celica and phased it into place right in front of Kit's extended arm.

"The difference in size doesn't matter, so I'm going to cater the digital version to fit you specifically," Arex explained, getting a small nod from the kitsune as the hologram shrunk down and encircled her wrist sleekly, "I just need to see the functionality in motion."

Kitsuki caught on quite easily to what Arex had in mind, but she didn't exactly know herself how Yang used her weapons. She's only really seen them outside of combat, when the girl occasionally wore them outside of campus grounds.

"You can sit up on the table too. The scrolls here tend to only allow their fields of projection to be vertical, I still need to upgrade this one to allow for horizontal shifts beyond the screen," Arex continued, taking a firm grasp of Kitsuki's hand before giving it a light tug.

The kitsune let herself be silently pulled up onto the station, settling herself down in a cross-legged fashion once she found a cleared away spot to sit.

After that, she sat still, quietly shifting her tails back and forth as she waited for any further instructions.

"These videos should give you an example of how to use them. Play them while I fit the other digital rendering to your left arm," Arex said, flicking a few flat, digital images toward the kitsune's front before maneuvering around the table and dragging the second gauntlet hologram with her.

Kitsuki watched a couple of the training videos taken of Yang, some of which took place outside of the Semester's time-frame and before Beacon.

She took in the technique Yang used to prime her gauntlets and watched carefully to see for any particular muscle tensing. After a few minutes of watching clips, she slid the open videos back over to Arex and brought up both her hands.

Golden-orange eyes took a moment to take in the glowing neon yellow holographic representations of Yang's weapons resting snugly on her own wrists, rotating and angling perfectly to match any movement she made on her own.

Like she was actually wearing them.

"Whenever you're ready. I just need to analyze exactly how they slide in person. I'll be able to enhance that specific functionality once I can see it work, now that I'm already working on the weapon in general," Arex explained.

Kitsuki took a moment to sign something, _"Are you going to add upgrades too?"_

"No, not without request. I'd rather not change the weapon at all. Enhancing its current attributes will be enough to make it better."

Kit nodded in understanding before turning her eyes back to the gauntlets, then slowly closed her hands into fists.

With a small, silent breath, she brought her right fist forward and held it there for a moment… then tugged it back in Yang's customary reload-fashion.

Then she did the same to her left arm.

Arex watched the cylindrical panels shift and slide under the motion of Kit's hands, analyzing how each shift utilized the carried momentum of each pull-back before slamming forward to load a new digital shell into their built-in chambers.

She knew exactly what to do to enhance that slide system and make it easier for Yang to pull off, hopefully with less exaggerated motion all the time.

But she also knew how flashy Yang was, from what she's seen so far. So, she didn't want to ruin the joy Yang felt from priming her own gauntlets in an impressive and aggressive fashion.

So Arex didn't want to make it too easy for them to be primed. They still needed that sense of power behind every draw.

Despite that, Arex knew what she could do, especially in the priming chamber to avoid jamming.

She had to hand it to Yang, though. Integrating a bullet chain into a compacted shotgun was impressive, especially without a trigger system.

It was well-built, and it was a shame to see the weapon so broken.

* * *

"Been awhile since I felt silk sheets against my wings," Anoel chimed in a quiet, tired voice, soft sunlight drifting through the open curtains of Ly's nearby bedroom balcony beneath a warm breeze.

Ly yawned, doing her best to wipe the sleep from her eyes, "Only the best for how sensitive they are."

Anoel hummed as she pulled a fluffy pillow against her chest, closing her eyes for a few more seconds, "How thoughtful."

"Yeah… you can thank me later."

"Too much to drink?" Anoel asked, smirking into her pillow as she reached a warm wing out and curled it around the woman next to her, "Or just trying to get rid of me."

"I don't have the resistances my cousin possesses and Niro gave me acolyte, take a wild guess," Ly's response was muffled by the black silk pillow she cradled.

Anoel rolled herself over and opened her golden eyes, irises falling on the back of her sex partner as the girl hugged her own pillow tightly to her chest with her legs pulled up, "Maybe he could sense the tension burning between us in the booth."

Those amber eyes traced an elegantly curved shoulder blade and collarbone, following them down to Ly's hip and lower back. She halted her gaze there for a few moments before tracing back up to follow the designs of a tattoo running from there to Ly's upper shoulders.

"When did you get a set of angel wings?" Anoel asked lightly, reaching a delicate hand out to softly graze her fingers up the center of Ly's spine, fingertips grazing gently over the tattoo, "Never knew you were an angel…"

Ly popped a single cerulean eye open to gaze at Anoel over her shoulder, "I've always been an angel, I don't know what you're talking about."

Anoel's lips curled into a smile as she shuffled over and pulled Ly in, resting her chin gently over her bare shoulder and brushing a tender cheek against the side of her craned neck, "Jealous?"

Two sleek black wings wrapped around Ly's sides, slipping beneath her naked hips and around her waist.

Ly smiled, "Hardly. Having those feather dusters seems like a lot of work."

"High maintenance, but _incredibly_ useful," Anoel replied, nuzzling into Ly's neck and nipping the skin there.

"Exactly the reason why I got a tattoo, my dear."

"Hmm… you're hiding something…" Anoel said quietly, slim arms keeping Ly close as they wrapped around her stomach, "It certainly wasn't there last night."

The angelic wings on Ly's back slowly began to melt away, fading until there was no longer a trace of the tattoo, "I'm _always_ hiding something, Ano."

"Impossible to hide everything from me, honey," Anoel returned, kissing her neck before pulling away and sitting up, "Not when we get this intimate."

"You should know by now that I no longer attempt to hide things from you," Ly responded earnestly, "Not like I had much of a choice to begin with, so I might as well just let you pry."

"Prying feels too harsh… more of a gentle prodding," Anoel glanced down to Ly at her side, giving her a soft pout, "Irresistible and highly enjoyable prodding."

"Call it as you will, sweetcheeks, I know what you've been doing," Ly responded with a wink.

"I know," Ano whispered, letting the silken blanket slide off her skin as she bent her legs up and slid across her side of the bed to the edge.

The info-broker was quite fond of the black silk sheets of the bed and pillows, glowing softly from drifting rays of sunlight peeking through the gaps of a wall of fluttering curtains. Beyond those rested a reflective gleam of a wall of glass, most of the panels open to let in natural light and a soothing breeze.

The warm air from outside tingled over her skin as she slipped her bare legs over the side of the bed and lightly lowered her feet to the wooden floor below, eyes dancing around the room to graze over clusters of glistening lights littering the furniture and floor.

The whole place was littered with gems of all assortments.

"Leaving so soon?"

"I can stay for a little longer," Anoel returned, glancing back to see Ly rolled over and looking her way, "Any traces of alcohol left in you? I can burn it away if you'd like… though, your body's still sensitive."

"If you can sense any, knock yourself out. Though, I'm sure some food will do it all the same."

"Want me to cook you something?"

"Hell no," Ly responded immediately, pushing herself up into a sitting position, "You're a _terrible_ cook."

Anoel pouted at that and crossed her arms beneath her chest, "I'm not _that_ bad."

Ly rolled onto her back, running her hands through her hair and down her face before sliding out of the covers, "Not in my apartment, Ano. I prefer my kitchen in one piece."

"Fine fine," Anoel relented with a mock pout, sliding over for a moment before crawling back to Ly's side, "Close your eyes for a sec."

"You can grope me in the open, I don't care."

"Oh, don't wind me up now, not when I can go another round," Anoel smirked, grazing her hand back over Ly's body before drifting down her flat stomach, "But if you want to see yourself on fire… by all means, you can watch."

Ly sighed before closing her eyes, "On second thought, I changed my mind."

"Good girl."

Ano pushed herself to her knees before placing her hands softly on either side of Ly's arms, shifting her weight to settle across her partner's hips and straddling her there.

After a moment of settling in, she slid her hands up to graze over Ly's collarbones before drifting them into place. Her left hand settled softly against Ly's forehead, the other placed itself lightly against the girl's breathing chest, right where her heart was.

"Brace yourself," Anoel stated in a small exhale.

The girl beneath her pushed her chest up for a moment and furrowed her brows, shifting before settling back down, "Is the straddling really needed?"

"Mhmm."

Anoel lit a small blaze beneath her hands and swept that over Ly's skin, raising a small flinch from Ly before letting the soothing warmth seep into the thief's body and simmer into her bloodstream.

A beautiful flickering glow emerged from Ly's brightening aura, pink and blue energy bristling with an orange flame encompassing and flowing through its hybrid combination as Anoel's irises sparked with a similar fire.

Before a minute passed, the fluctuating flames drifted back into Anoel's arms and dissipated.

"How do you feel?"

"Like I could go another round," Ly breathed out immediately, a hot breath cascading from her parted mouth.

Anoel gave her hips a small grind before leaning down, pecking Ly's lips before she could open her eyes, "Don't tempt me. The juncture between my legs just happened to be the warmest place on my body at the time."

Ly's eyes opened and her smirk widened, her hands quickly making their way to Anoel's hips to keep them moving against her, "I like playing with fire and you know it."

Ano stifled the small gasp escaping her lips as she let Ly take over, having been hiding the fact that she's been incredibly sensitive herself after last night's endeavors.

But they really did have other priorities to attend to, rather than each other.

So Ano squeezed her thighs, keeping them locked tight before letting herself lean down and rest comfortably on top of Ly's chest. She kissed the thief's shoulder before claiming it as a new resting place for her head, "I know… my fire likes you too."

"That's cute," Ly whispered softly, recognizing Ano's resistance and receding her hands from the info-broker's hips. Instead, she brought them up to delicately trace her fingers through the many black feathers presented to her, "You know, my body's all tingly after your little magic trick…"

Ly spread her legs a little to emphasize her point, pressing her hips up into Anoel's and wrapping her lithe legs tightly around Ano's body, locking her ankles up there.

"Are you sure all you did was burn the alcohol away?"

Anoel gave a mock little gasp and leaned up, staring into Ly's eyes after a hot quiver rushed through her core, "How could you accuse me of something so nefarious?"

Ly's eyes narrowed as her smirk remained, "Is that a trick question?"

"Maybe…" Ano rolled her eyes, letting the core of her body heat up ever so slightly as she sealed herself against Ly, "Okay… I _may_ have played with a few of your sensitive spots as I burned the alcohol away…"

"Thought so…"

"I can't help it, it's just too tempting," Anoel replied, almost meek with her words.

"I bet you tried that shit with Niro too, huh?"

"M-maybe once or twice," Anoel replied with a bite of her lip, unwarranted heat festering inside her cheeks.

"You're such a hopeless romantic…"

* * *

"Aside from the gems scattered about everywhere I look, your apartment's rather impressive," Anoel commented, pulling her thin black half-coat back into place as she gazed around, taking a moment to tour the penthouse.

"I literally just asked for the most expensive one they had and extorted Ray for the money to pay for it. It was already furnished when I bought it, the only additions I made were the valuables you see before you," Ly replied as they walked down the hall.

Paintings decorated the white walls, breaking up the pattern as they passed the bathroom and spare bedrooms opposite to one another.

The bathrooms themselves were all full-baths, centralizing large, jet-accompanied bathtubs, walk-in showers, black marble vanities, and full-body mirrors.

Aside from the basics for what the room and furnishing were, Anoel strolled into the nearest bathroom while having her look around, glancing up into the somewhat tall empty space of the full-bath before scooping her hand down into a tub of diamonds.

"Wow… moans would really echo in here…"

"Wanna take a bath in the diamonds?" Ly asked from the doorway, leaning a lightly clothed shoulder against its frame, only fitted now by a t-shirt and underwear.

"I don't want diamonds in me," Anoel replied honestly.

"Suit yourself," Ly replied with a cheeky smile, nodding her head out toward the living area down the hall from Ly's bedroom, "Here, let me show you the main balcony."

Anoel let her handful of small gems sift between her fingers and fall into the tub, rolling back into place among the rest piled up in the jacuzzi-sized bath, "Oh? I like where this is going."

"I know you do. You're fascinated with heights."

They passed the spare bedrooms, Ly opening the door briefly to show the interior of each before moving on to the vast, open living area. To their immediate right was a wide glass wall, giving them a view of the balcony outside.

The whole apartment seemed to favor natural light, since another wall of windows sat in the bedroom they slept in.

With the apartment's entrance down another corridor far to the left, the two stepped across the open floorplan of the main area toward the sliding glass doors of the balcony. A kitchen lay beyond the foyer's wall, bending along the back left corner to open up into the living room.

A corner couch lay before a wide 70-inch scroll TV on the wall to the left of the glass windows, nice, big, and expensive. Just Ly's style.

Wrapping around a square mahogany kitchen table with four chairs, they slid the doors open along the right wall and stepped out into the brushing breeze of a silver-granite balcony.

To their right was a ladder dipping into the crystal clear swimming pool and to their left stood a set of spiral stairs.

"Ah, I noticed an exterior level earlier, while we were on the couch," Anoel commented, glancing toward the staircase, "Where's it lead?"

"There's a communal garden on the roof, quite nice actually. I like to count my money up there after I'm done for the day. View is lovely. It's mostly looked after by the staff here, but residents can grow their own flowers and food if they want."

"I don't know… I thought the view in bed trumped everything else," Anoel replied, glancing up to the upper edge of the roof above them before clicking her way to the base of the stairs, low-heeled boots tapping along the granite, "But I can never resist a lovely view."

Ly gestured towards the top of the stairs, "After you."

"Sure you'll be alright up there? It's a bit breezy," Anoel replied, bouncing up the first few steps and turning around to see Ly padding her way up as well, still in just a shirt and panties.

"I'm used to the draft. I sometimes count my lien naked up there."

"Oh? You're giving me ideas," Anoel replied, reaching the rest of the way up the stairs at a leisure pace with Ly.

"It _is_ a communal garden though, but there are ways to reserve it for certain periods of time under privacy agreements with the hotel's staff," Ly replied, stepping out ahead of Anoel and making her way into an open, lush garden.

If the gems inside weren't already so accumulated, the flowers, flora, and fluorescent colors of the building's uppermost level would've easily taken the title for the most beautiful level of the grand hotel.

Sanus's oceanic horizon lay at their backs, and in the distance beyond the garden sat the cityscape of the great Kingdom of Vale and, beyond that, the far eastern mountain range.

It was there the sun had just risen, casting a golden glow across the white clouds of the city's sky.

Anoel's breath… may or may not have been just taken away. Not like last night's breathlessness, but in a much more awe-inspiring way.

"Like the view?" Ly asked, turning toward her info-breaking associate as the two made their way to the far edge, facing the sun.

Anoel could only nod, the rest of her words getting trapped in her throat at the moment.

"You know, with your silver tongue always at work, seeing you tongue-tied is pretty cute," Ly teased, brushing her short strands of golden hair behind her ear.

Ano just glanced toward Ly for a moment, then back toward the sun and the horizon of mountains in the distance, then back to the ocean out across the other edge of the hotel, "There isn't a lot that can make me breathless, you know…"

Ly crossed her arms and glanced out toward the sun, "Am I on that short list of yours?"

Anoel stepped up onto the ledge and leaned out over the breaking updraft, shivering slightly under the small euphoria of rushing wind, "You're one of five."

"Only five, huh?"

"You'll figure out the rest of them with time. One's pretty obvious though," the info-broker replied, closing her eyes as she tempted fate by leaning out to balance herself against the uplifting air.

"Yeah, but I have no idea where to start with the other three," Ly returned, glancing back to Ano with a small smile forming.

"Fly with me?" Anoel quickly asked, opening her eyes and glancing back.

" _Now?_ I'm not even dressed," Ly replied, eyes suddenly changing from a bright sapphire to a pearlescent rose-pink.

"Just a quick dip, it'll feel nice with what little clothes you have on right now."

A soft sigh escaped Ly's lips as she closed her eyes, "If you insist…"

"Are you still nervous about things like this?" Anoel asked softly, turning around to leave her back facing out into the open air.

"That's because flying a bullhead is _significantly_ different to clinging to someone for deal life, Ano."

"This isn't something I like to force. It's entirely up to you," Anoel explained, her sky blue eyes remaining on Ly's own.

"I know, Anoel…" Ly paused, running her fingers through her hair and sighing, "but I feel like I'll need to get used to it at some point. I didn't train to pilot aircraft in a day after all. No point in dodging it."

"The take-off is always the scariest part. Once we're up there, your nerves are just going to melt away," Anoel assured, nodding up to the ledge she was standing on before reaching out her hand.

After a moment, Ly entrusted her hand into Anoel's elegant fingers and stepped up, letting the woman pull her onto the ledge and against her side.

"Last chance to back down," Anoel stated, holding Ly close as she leaned the two outward slightly.

"Just don't crash, I've had enough of those already…"

"I haven't crashed since I was little," Ano promised, before reaching down and taking Ly's legs up into her free arm while keeping her other wrapped firmly around her upper back.

"I-I hope this isn't giving you any _other_ ideas…"

"Wouldn't dream of it, honey," Ano replied with a wink, slipping her sleek black wings out from hidden slits at the back of her jacket, "I'll be making those a reality…"

Ly's nerves seemed to act up a little more, but Anoel quickly remedied that with a quick flare of her aura's warm Affinity.

"Eventually," Anoel finished, before fanning out her full wingspan and stepping out into the wind.

* * *

 **Summer… time to go find my motivation again and keep these stories kindled.**

 **I like writing them.**

 **Hope you don't mind, but I want Kitsuki and Arex to be pretty inseparable. They're a cute pairing... and cuddly.**

 **Additionally, this, and the last, were written in tandem with andy (prior chapter) and Hydra (this chapter) to keep characters aligned properly. It kept all direct actions with their particular characters from going OOC.**

 **In any case, I hope it's fun to read too. Anoel may or may not be addicted to flying… as are most avian faunus.**

 **It's a euphoric experience, no matter how often they do it.**

 **For now,** _ **Favorite**_ **and** _ **Follow**_ **.**

 **I look forward to seeing** _ **REVIEWS**_ **for this. You'll be introduced to a LOT of concepts of mine. Feel free to give me your thoughts.**

 **Cya XP**


	29. Deep

Rogue Huntsman

Deep

«»

"Three thousand lien on the big guy!"

"Are you nuts?!"

"The small one's a martial artist! The big guy stands no chance!"

"I see your three and I raise you to four, only _mine's_ on the small guy."

I wiped down another glass and set that aside, clinking it softly into place with the rest of them as the circle of people before the bar bent and warped to the two individuals wrestling around at the center.

They were comparing sticks, apparently. See who the stronger fighter was.

The five-time reigning champion of the cheerleader's lifting committee, or the shorty who could move his hands really fast and make loud noises.

I'm surprised his belt was black.

Well, then again, he did need to keep those baggy pants up with something. Maybe he should consider a stapler.

A kick was thrown, a punch was landed, the crowd was only getting rowdier, I could only breathe out slowly as I glanced to the digital clock of one of the scroll televisions.

It was closing time.

Which meant… out with the patrons.

I hopped the countertop with a small brush of the hand, swinging my legs over silently before landing without a sound on the floorboards behind the crowd.

The fight was getting more intense, hard muscle striking skin and bone as the two collided through the cracks of swaying people in front of me.

As I stepped forward, the smaller combatant turned his back to me and faced his opponent, swinging his arms violently before leaping and kicking the giant at the center of his chest. The crowd parted just in time to avoid the man's flying form, his body striking wood and sliding several feet.

My patrons moved slightly apart after that as the short guy hopped back, people getting out of the way, save for one.

His back bumped into my chest as he threw his arms into the air in victory, my head moving out of the way of his fist before he realized.

"O-oh, right, closing time…" one of the patrons said, shuffling away to grab his belongings.

Another didn't even speak, just up and dashed out the door.

The rest parted like the god damn red sea as the collection of patrons stepped cleanly away from the one person who stood closest to me.

"You're the owner, right?" the shortstack turned then took a step back, wiping his nose with the back of his hand like it was supposed to mean something.

I only gave a small nod to answer him. Who else do you think would own this joint? Scrawny over there? Or Leeroy?

"Then you're the guy they talk about," the man looked up to me with a fierce fire in his eyes, the muscles in his arms and legs suddenly tensing as I felt his center of balance shift, "They say you're unbeatable. That true?"

" _Who_ talks about?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

Unbeatable is a term used by people who can't work to save their lives. They're the kind of people who give up after they've reached their limit, not willing to push further toward whatever bar some other glory-hog already placed above their heads.

I was already beaten by a tiny white fox, so that title was a lie anyway.

"Just talk on the streets and on the net," he continued, closing his small hands into bony fists as he cracked his neck, "You're the only name they give me when I ask who's the strongest in town."

That title probably belonged to Dante's mom for the sole reason of putting up with that monstrosity of pheromones. To make it worse, that sack of sand just got placed in a world that legalized polygamy.

Queue the harems. Hopefully he hides the bodies when he's done.

Or she, depending on who's more protective of who. Kitsune can be the jealous type.

"Now that I've found you," the small stack of testosterone bounced around on the balls of his feet as he cracked his knuckles, "I can put an end to the rumors. I'm here to put the strongest in their place."

He doubled back as a resolve formed in his eyes, flipping to prove a moot point as he somersaulted back onto his hands before flipping across the floor.

Two feet connected before he continued, going for two, then pushed three, then went for four-

Little kicksworth was delaying closing time.

I got behind him on his fifth flip and caught him by the back of the head, killing his momentum with the palm of my hand before I dropped his face into the ground.

Wide eyes suddenly closed in both pain and unconsciousness as I crushed his skull into the solid floorboards, not enough to damage my bar but more than enough to knock him out.

"Next time you want to show off," I picked him up by the back of the neck and carried his dangling form to the door, dropping him outside, "go to a preschool. I hear they don't start combat training until a year in."

Bar fights in my establishment were fine. I'm all for them. But at closing time, when the place was looking to lock up, that's a low blow in any place that sells you good alcohol.

Speaking of that, I stepped back in the door and let the rest of the standing patrons make their way out. This wasn't a full-on brawl, which I'm both disappointed in and partially relieved by, but it wasn't much of a fight either.

As people filtered out the door, I picked up the larger man who took part in the fight and set him outside too, dropping him on top of the ninja sprawled out on the sidewalk.

Then after a few more seconds, the Black Stallion was empty of warm bodies.

Good.

I closed and locked the door, letting the windows tint over in a black overlay to keep out straying eyes before I stepped over the two on the sidewalk and flicked their heads.

"Wake up," I muttered, snapping their brains back into consciousness with a burst of aura before I stood and walked off.

The sounds of groaning were the only indication I needed to know they were still alive.

* * *

Kitsuki leaned back as a small digital fox jumped up into her lap, circling atop the girl's legs and thighs for a moment before curling up and closing its eyes.

The kitsune's ears perked up as golden-orange irises softened at the sight of the white fox, delicate hands soon reaching down to pet the digital creature's glowing fur.

Arex was done testing the motor functions of Yang's gauntlets, so she took them off Kit once the girl got bored of them.

Instead of making the girl sit silently on a stool, though, the phoenix coded a quick program to generate a small rendition of a fox for the girl.

She figured it'd keep Kit's attention off Arex herself as the girl worked.

But, if she were being honest, Arex kinda liked Kit sitting up on the workstation. It kept her in sight, for one thing, but it also made sure Kit always had something within reach.

The phoenix had already caught the kitsune reaching for things when she was situated in her chair, so this was a good solution for that.

That, and she may or may not just like glancing to the kitsune herself.

With the fox to distract her, Arex was finally able to see how the girl interacted with her surroundings without being met with a soft golden-orange gaze in return.

Gazes like that always made it feel weird to stare, so Arex usually found herself looking away in those moments.

But as Kit softly scratched the small fox's ears and rubbed under its chin, Arex found herself taking in everything she could about the kitsune.

Even when idle, the girl's tails were flowing back and forth in an elegant trance of entwining fur. Each appendage brushed up against one another as they swayed at different intervals, their thin tips curling and flicking with every sway, giving the bushel of tails a lively motion to them.

A strong part of Arex wanted to know exactly where the tails came out of Kit's body, but she didn't want to go that far with the girl. That may have been too much to ask for.

But the forger did notice Kitsuki's preference in leggings, and on top of that, painfully noticed Kit's preference to forgo any kind of legwear when she slept.

They aligned to just one thing. Kit didn't like her tails feeling confined, which meant she could give them free range of motion at night and during the day.

Ultimately, she didn't avidly try to hide them. It seemed like Kit didn't want to.

Arex would be lying if she said she didn't want to know why.

As the phoenix finished priming Yang's gauntlets, finally done with fitting the final panels into place, her eyes caught Kitsuki's fox ears twitching all of a sudden.

Something new was filtering into her hearing.

Only a few seconds passed before the crack of a hammer on an anvil echoed through the room, sounding out dully from the opposite side of the grand forge. Arex's irises quickly snapped to the side, hearing another one fall soon after.

After the third fall, she turned back to Kitsuki only for her eyes to widen when meeting the concerned and confused golden-orange gaze of her partner.

"Sounds like someone else is working, too," Arex spoke quietly, hoping the worry would go away in Kitsuki's eyes.

It did.

"If you're wondering how good the soundproofing is in a room like this," Arex said, pulling up a new set of blueprints as she slid all of the tools Ember Celica needed out of the way, "You wouldn't be able to hear thunder if it cracked above the forge's release vents."

Kitsuki's eyes widened at that.

" _Really?"_

"Mhmm," Arex nodded in return, hiding a small smile. She knew Kit would like hearing that.

" _Is it okay if students stay overnight in the forge room?"_ the girl signed quickly, eyes fixated on Arex for an equally quick answer.

"They're fine with it. As far as I know, this room is one of the few Beacon facilities to stay open indefinitely unless maintenance was needed. The infirmary is another one."

This place beat the dorm room's closet any day of the week.

" _Is it… alright… if I bring my partner?"_ Kitsuki's shoulders rose as she signed that, dropping her chin slightly to droop her fox ears out of sight.

She looked meek when she asked that, sheepish in every sense of the word. She'd come here during a storm, but she wouldn't do it alone.

Arex felt a small heatwave hit her front when she mentally recoiled at Kitsuki's words, but she thanked whatever wits she actually had that she didn't drop the metal pieces she was currently organizing.

"I'm…" Arex slowly stated, breathing out with each word, "fine… with staying the night here. So, if you need me, just ask."

Kitsuki's shoulders relaxed as the girl nodded her head, ears springing back up like a weight suddenly fell from her head, _"Thank you. I've never really been good with storms, so it helps to have a way to avoid them."_

"I'm usually here anyway," Arex sighed, shaking the redness from her pale cheeks as she read through Ray's blueprint, the hammering in the background getting faster and more consistent, "It won't really be a bother. You're good company too. Quiet, and… helpful."

Kit smiled as Arex turned her head slightly away, slowing down in her working for a moment as the kitsune glanced to her.

The fox girl only smiled more when Arex's eyes quickly regarded Kit's hands as soon as they started moving.

It was becoming a routine for the phoenix now, to just return her gaze to Kit's front in conversation.

" _I like being your company."_

Arex went back to work after that, Kit easily noticing the rising blush. The kitsune read that as a good sign, something more earnest and genuine than just words. That, and Kit also noticed a mild rise in temperature in the room as a whole.

The phoenix's aura seemed to flare with emotion, and that was quickly piquing Kitsuki's interest in how else the aura reacted to the owner's feelings.

It… caught her attention. A lot like Arex's eyes when her mood changed.

The hammering in the background only continued to get louder as the two worked, increasing in slams per minute as the intensity of whatever project the other student was working on seemed to increase gradually.

It wasn't long before Arex sighed and opened up her playlist on the built-in scroll of her workstation, sliding the whole window over to Kitsuki to pick out a song.

"This'll help drown out any noise. I wasn't expecting anyone else to be here, to be honest," Arex said, watching for a moment as Kitsuki tapped her chin in expressive thought and scrolled up and down in the given playlist.

She spent a few minutes deciding, furrowing her brows and tails in thought before finally selecting one.

Lucy began to play. A song that slowly closed Arex's eyes as Kit gradually raised it in volume.

"That's the only Skillet song I have," Arex commented idly, shaking away the emotions that came with it as she opened her eyes again, "Did you pick it because of the name?"

Kit shook her head no, _"I picked it because it was alone, and I wanted to listen to it."_

Arex could only smile softly at that, "Fair enough."

The phoenix worked further into her project Ray had assigned her, slowly beginning to piece together a set of processors for a likely weapon he had in mind.

There weren't many reasons why you'd build processors like these.

He needed an efficient conduit for energy, and these would supply that. The only question about them was why the boy needed someone like Arex to build them.

She may have been intricate with her hands and careful with her works, but this didn't exactly require anything overly special.

Just a high heat temperature and consistency rate.

As Arex worked, the hammering almost sounded like two hammers were striking at the same time, then three, then four, and it wasn't until five sounded like they were pounding away when Arex looked up in confusion.

Were there more students in here?

She glanced to the side as Kit continued to play with her pet fox, scratching under its chin and giggling silently when it purred in her lap.

The hammering grew even more intense as a few seconds ticked by before everything went quiet and, just as the playlist switched songs to Just Breathe, a loud crack and a sudden explosion sounded out from the opposite side of the forge room.

"What was-"

Arex's eyes widened as Kit's ears folded from the concussive blowback, the two flinching as a figure flew through the air at the far side of the room and crashed into the rounded wall in the distance.

Golden-orange and bright yellow widened as a boy lay embedded in the stone wall, grumbling to himself as smoke bristled from the cloth of his shirt and pants.

His beanie all but flaming.

The boy pushed himself from the wall and fell to his feet, fixing the beanie on his head first before brushing crumbling stones and dust from his attire as he looked around and started walking back to his forge.

It was Ray… the very person Arex was currently working on a project for.

When his piercing amethyst eyes fell on their workstation, Arex's back suddenly stiffened and she broke eye contact.

But it wasn't her he was most focused on.

As he walked, he seemed to glue his eyes to Kitsuki's curiously staring golden-orange ones. She watched him walk sideways for a moment as he narrowed his gaze and stared at her in question, two parts confused and one part suspicious.

There was something going on in his irises that went unanswered by the two at Arex's claimed workstation, and it wasn't about to be answered anytime soon.

All they managed to see was a subtle pulse in his eyes before he returned to his side of the room with furrowed brows.

He looked like he wanted something, but didn't want to confront them yet. Either that, or he wasn't expecting to see the kitsune in the forge room.

"Have, uh, you two met?" Arex asked slowly, turning her gaze back to Kitsuki only for that gaze to widen again in worry.

Kit had her tails pulled up in front of her with her arms wrapped firmly around their tightly coiled bundle, shaking slightly in her seat atop the workstation.

" _The flying boy wouldn't stop staring at me…"_

Arex watched the kitsune sign out her phrase with shaky hands, the sight only hammering in the ever present endearing factor to her white-tailed partner.

"I'm not surprised," Arex replied thoughtlessly, only stopping mid-thought after what she said.

" _Y-you're not?"_ Kit asked, peering over the curl of her fox tails at Arex beyond her fur.

"I-I mean, it's just, um, h-he probably wasn't expecting to see us in the forge room with him!" Arex replied with a convincingly nervous smile, "He was probably just coming to terms that he wasn't alone in here anymore."

Nailed it.

After all, who could blame him? Arex couldn't stop staring at Kitsuki too the first time she saw her.

Wait, what?

"A-anyway, where was I?" Arex asked herself, fixing her eyes back onto the blueprint floating in front of her as she put her hands back to work.

Kitsuki could only blink silently for a few moments as she continued to watch Arex in confusion.

She didn't even know who that was.

* * *

I made my way down the street, a full day having passed now since the docks incident as I reached into my pocket and brought a black scroll to my ear.

It started to ring as soon as I held it up to the side of my head.

"Find it?" I asked as soon as the line opened up, pulling the lip of my hat down as I silently roamed the deserted streets of Vale.

"Niro! Wonderful to hear your voice. How'd you know it was me?" Roman's voice sounded out through my scroll's speaker, caller ID blocked and unlisted, "My hackers haven't been slacking, have they?"

"You're the only one who ever calls at two in the morning," I replied evenly, uncaring enough to actually explain the fact that I could sense the signals even trying to touch the scroll in my pocket.

Or the fact that I could read and track them from sensory ability alone.

"Well, isn't that obvious? You're the only one who reliably picks up at this time. Besides, I wouldn't put it passed your info-broker to call you at a time like this," Roman replied.

There was a small shuffling from Roman's end and some muffled screams of pain, then everything went quiet.

"Anyway," he continued, "about that favor you mentioned at the docks."

"I'm listening."

"I found it. Well, not all of it, but one of the entrances. Those mines aren't on any geographical maps, Niro. There's bound to be more than one entrance, but the mines technically don't exist. So even finding an opening was a hell of a hassle." The crime lord sounded exhausted, likely having searched for this piece of information for 24 hours straight now.

With a request like mine on the line, nobody would blame the mastermind if he did just that.

"I'll send you the coordinates. Do remember our deal, my good friend."

"I don't break my promises," I said, turning my head slightly to see a car pass me by on the empty street.

"I'll keep you on speed dial then!" Roman replied cheerfully, drowsiness seemingly melting away, "Perfect for when I need to cash in that favor."

"Glad to hear…" I continued walking, seeing that car pull up to a storefront window far ahead of me and watching as each of its doors clicked open.

Four armed men in masks exited the vehicle.

More shuffling came through from Roman's end as I heard the crime lord whispering to someone else, "Neo! No biting!"

There was more shuffling, then a loud hmphed chomp before the muffled wail of a gagged man breached my speaker, the voice sounding like it was likely tied to a chair somewhere behind Roman himself.

I never questioned Roman's strategy to gather intel… but I wouldn't put it past him to use Neo to get what he wanted.

This contact in particular was probably going to skip town once Roman was done with him.

Nobody snitches on the Maestro family.

Roman finally returned to his scroll to say his goodbye, "Be seeing you, Niro."

I hung up after that.

Both my hands soon found their way into my pockets as I made my way forward, the group of men in front of me surrounding the door to the store they parked in front of and prepared to break in.

Only… one of them suddenly looked up and caught sight of my approaching form.

The eyes behind his face mask seemed to widen by a margin I didn't feel like taking note of, his entire countenance tensing before he stuttered backward and pushed away from the wall.

Then he bolted.

The other three turned to watch him run off, most of them angry.

Words were thrown around before I calmly blinked and stepped through them, each quiet tap of my boots silencing one after another before all three stared at my back as I continued walking.

The traditional sound of glass breaking or a door frame rattling didn't occur. Instead, I heard the sounds of curses and yells, before three car doors slammed shut and the smell of burning rubber filled the air.

Then the car whipped around in the street and sped away.

Ordinarily, these guys would be seen as amateurs for getting spooked and running away.

I huffed in silence at that, letting my cold breath spill out in front of me as I turned the next corner.

No. An idiot didn't know when to quit while they were ahead.

These guys were seasoned professionals and had the equipment to prove it.

I stopped for a moment, looking up in thought before glancing to the night sky.

Oh, right. There was a high valued bank on this side of town.

Wonder if that was it.

* * *

The walk through Sanus's southern forest was entirely uneventful. All I did was kill grimm along the way, and that was it.

Nothing special.

Black blood dripped down my arm, trickling over my fingers as I took a beowolf by the jaw and snapped it open. The creature didn't die, but without a jaw to fight or feed it was as good as dead.

That, and-

I grabbed it by its arms and kicked its chest, ripping both limbs from its body and sending its torso and whatever else was still intact crashing into the dirt between the trees.

-without _these_ , it'd bleed out and die in just a few short minutes.

Or, at least, a few excruciatingly long ones for the beast.

I tossed both bloodied appendages to the side, a sickening squelch and the crack of bones rattled as they hit the ground. An armada of dead beowolves and ursa laid smoking behind me and at my sides as I evaporated the blood from my skin and clothes.

 _Entirely_ uneventful.

Nothing in this forest ever was, especially since the general population of this side of Sanus _was_ those two breeds. The occasional deathstalker would arrive from time to time, but most tended to huddle away in their caves and wait for groups of grimm to come along before congregating.

I let out a low growl as I passed between the trees, leaves bristling and swaying far above me as I reached up and pushed a thick branch to the side, bending it before I passed it as well.

There was a subtle sting of prickly energy in the distance, carrying with it an electrifying scent of hard stone and unbridled energy ripping through the depths of Remnant.

And it all only got stronger the closer I got to Roman's coordinates.

His intel was rarely wrong, and to that, I can drink to.

There was no opening or clearing when I reached the shattered crevice of a small ravine, just an open rift in the land that tore through the forest floor in front of me, impossible to see from any distance or vantage point with no way to get to its bottom.

The grass-ridden edge crumbled at my feet as I approached its ridge, the opening only spanning 231 meters in length and only splitting 3 to 4 meters in width.

For an enormous crack in the surface of the planet, it wasn't anything to be impressed by.

Roots of trees breached in and out of the walls of the crevice, entwining together like bridges to further mask any aerial reconnaissance just grazing by this section of the continent. And, to top it off, even the tree canopy reached far enough to obscure the ravine away from the sky.

I see why it hasn't been found by just random chance…

The ground beneath my boots would've given way if I hadn't stepped forward, letting gravity yank me down into the deep rift as dirt melted into stone and bedrock, dropping me hard enough into the deep opening to force me to hold my hat in place.

2 miles passed… 5 miles passed… 10 miles… the miles were only counting up as the lightless abyss beneath me grew darker.

I didn't hit the ground until I fell for nearly 38 miles into the planet's upper mantle.

It was rough, dry, and devoid of water, explaining why the majority of it cracked and ruptured when I landed. A certain energy stifled the lightless air I dropped through, softly bristling between the walls and shaking just enough to be felt across any visible skin beneath thin clothing.

This was the right place.

A much more potent entrance lay ahead of me as I stepped forward, leaving the crumbling, cracked stone behind me as I descended even deeper into the downhill ravine. The light from above was nonexistent down here, leaving the expanse of stone before me in complete darkness.

Veins of ore glistened in the walls, yet remained untouched. Iron, gold, silver… I brushed my hand softly against the wall and crumbled some stone away, finding a faint yellow hue seeping out of the earth just out of reach.

That light led deep, far beneath the ravine itself, and the presence of it only increased gradually as I continued downward.

Before long, the walls and ravine floor surrounding me were overtaken with the thick energy from within the stone itself.

Each step I took amplified that presence further, and as I reached the end of the ravine, a dark corridor began to reveal itself in the broken wall to my right.

A manmade cave system, mined out with machinery or tools. It wasn't a naturally formed tunnel…

I headed down that way, and after a hundred feet, the cave took a jagged turn. As soon as I rounded its harsh bend, a golden glow illuminated the rest of the sharp tunnel in the distance.

When I reached it, the cave broke away into a brightly shining cavern, a clearing surprisingly immense in size and vast in what lined its walls.

Lightning Dust.

Raw veins illuminated the empty expanse of stone before me, breaking away from the stones and enriching the thick layers of earth around this cavern so potently, the veins even reached the surface beneath 19 separate sectors of the continent itself.

Each surface-reaching vein was miles apart, some even moreso than that.

They all led here, to _this_ epicenter. And something immeasurable in power lay deeper inside the cavern, over the sloping hill that lay before me.

It was shiny and bright, but I wanted to see what prize lay just out of view. It felt… overwhelming, surprisingly so.

Something that bristled with enough energy that it easily overtook the veins of Dust making up the entirety of the crystal cavern I walked through.

Barely any stone was visible as I stepped forward, crystalline Dust crunching under my feet as I strolled through the literal field of breaching manifestations of mineable energy.

It was _all_ Dust.

No wonder why the Maestro family suddenly rose in fortune this generation. _However…_ I narrowed my gaze as I strolled deeper into the mine, just exactly _how_ did the family's prodigy son _find_ this place…?

41 miles beneath the surface of the planet, dug to by a ravine so deeply lodged into the planet itself that it'd require several metric tons of materials and machinery just to reach safely, this wasn't just a casual walk in the park.

That heir to the family name _knew_ this was here.

And he _didn't_ invite _me_ …

How selfish.

I made it a few feet into the cavern before something new came into my senses, and I stopped. The rim of my hat tipped down as I looked slightly to my side, obscuring my eyes as I scanned my surroundings.

The energy blanketing the stifling air down here made sensory abilities obsolete, so only a faint trace of something foreign brushed against my senses before its presence surged.

This'll be good.

I leapt backward as the ground warped beneath me, sharp spines of golden Dust crystals penetrated the ground from below and tore out of the ground at where I was standing.

Several more rose in the area I was landing, a quick quaking rumble breaking the crystals beneath me as I flipped around and landed on a rising spike, kicking away from it to barely evade two large crystal chunks crushing together.

One more razor-sharp spine rose out of the ground directly in front of me, ripping out of the crystalline depths at a speed just shy of an anti-material's fastest artillery round.

The tip rapidly encroached on my chest, heading directly for my heart.

So… someone was doing this, huh?

I reached my gloved hand in front of me and crashed my palm into the razor tip of the rising spine, crushing it in a dematerializing fashion as it pushed against my hand.

And then it stopped.

As did the rest of the pre-emptive attacks.

"Finally going to chat a bit, are we?" I asked, landing solidly on the ground in front of the destroyed spike of Dust.

Tiny fragments and specks of the crystalline structure littered the ground and crunched beneath my steps as I made my way around the risen spine's base, my eyes rising with the dark shadow of my hat as I looked to the one who greeted me.

"Aww, but that's how I say hello~"

My eyes locked onto a hungry, dangerous bright teal gaze crouched low to the floor. Tiger-like eyes stared back at me with a feline tilt to them, narrow pupils meeting mine as I took a more casual stance.

"What's a tiger like you doing in a place like this?" I asked calmly, shaking a few dusty remains of Dust from Ahrulian's black cloth as I grabbed my forearm, clenching and unclenching my partially gloved fingers in front of my chest.

She had light orange hair, black tips adding an admittedly beautiful depth to them while white streaks ran evenly through her short, soft locks of hair, each mildly curled at their ends. It wasn't exactly unkempt… but retained a wild look, exactly like her disposition suggested, almost wavy with the end-curls in the style.

Her legs were spread low in her crouch to the ground, one hand outstretched far behind her while her other laid its fingers delicately on the ground beneath her.

She was an Affinity user.

An earth one, too.

"Oh, just prowling around," she replied in the same silken, husky voice she used earlier. The pads of her lightly tanned fingers brushed against the harsh, crystal ground as she stood up straight.

The action was elegant, her body knowing exactly which curves to accentuate and roll gracefully as she stood to her normal height of 5 feet 9 inches.

Shorter than me, but not by much.

The exotic girl breathed out before she flashed me a toothy grin, giving me the alluring gaze of a predator looking at its prey.

Well, sorry to break it to you lady, but I'm not-

My muscles suddenly tensed as I gripped my fingers into my glove, eyes dashing behind her as I lowered my tightening fist back to my side.

Someone else was here, masked by the energy around us.

The girl's smirk only widened more as she took a careful step back, eyes locked on me before she stepped to the side.

All stifled noise in the cavern's crystalline walls grew still as the slow crunch of someone else's boots quietly approached from the overwhelming energy source in the distance.

And that was when I saw him.

"Well well well, I believe we have an unannounced guest standing in our foyer."

His suave voice was smooth, deathly so. An air of confidence shrouded his every tone, embellishing his words with a condescending power to it that was backed by strength that went far beyond anyone else I've come across in Beacon.

This guy…

"Well!" Pale hands clapped together as the heir to the Maestro family himself stood calmly beneath my critical gaze, "I believe neither of us has had the pleasure of meeting one another, Mister Ezdeil."

His last words were given as he bowed forward, one arm behind his back while the other gestured royally before himself in greeting.

"A pleasure to meet your acquaintance," he continued, then his bright, reflective golden eyes had the audacity to meet mine as he stood back up.

And then the 18-year-old spoke again.

"The name's Sylvius. Sylvius Maestro. Now… what are you doing in _my_ mine?"

His princely smirk currently held enough power to level the continent twice over, a realization that only brought a smirk to my unflinching face.

This'll be fun.

* * *

 **Meet Sylvius Maestro! Yeah! Wonder who he is…**

 **Anyway, Kit was cute, Ray exploded, Niro was Niro, I should've gotten this chapter out sooner.**

 **That's my bad. No use in giving any excuses.**

 **For now,** _ **Favorite**_ **and** _ **Follow**_ **.**

 **I look forward to seeing** _ **REVIEWS**_ **for this. You'll be introduced to a LOT of concepts of mine. Feel free to give me your thoughts.**

 **Cya XP**


	30. Amber

Rogue Huntsman

Amber

«»

"Heard you were playing with fireworks," I said, tipping my hat down with a pinch of my fingers as the Maestro heir bowed, "Thought I'd drop in, see if I can catch any."

"Clever, I like that," Sylvius replied, grinning as he stepped forward and gestured to his side, "Like what you see?"

I let my gaze wander for a moment, humoring him as I took in our surroundings once again, "Quaint, but not my style."

"Right, right. The Black Stallion, was it?" the boy asked, turning his gaze away as he let his own eyes wander wondrously across the cavernous crystals above us, "Homely, like a traditional tavern hearth. I've been meaning to visit."

"Drinks too cheap for your taste?" I asked.

"On the contrary, the drinks are to my liking, from the stories I've heard. If anything, they're underpriced," he walked off to the side and gestured for me to follow.

I did.

"Niro Ezdeil…" he muttered, a heavy interest lacing his words as he met my eyes, "I've always wanted to meet the man behind the name. Though, it wasn't the first you were known by…"

Ahrulian suddenly suffered the deathly grip of my tensing fingers, my face remaining in its calm, casual demeanor, but the rest of my body tensing beneath his words.

Very few knew that side of me.

"Azrael. Now doesn't _that_ name carry a resounding ring to it. Rolls right off the tongue." Sylvius took in a deep breath a let it out, smiling all the more, "The Angel of Death… It's almost beautiful in its destruction. And here he is, standing before me."

I grit my teeth and forced my hand to loosen up, finally freeing my fingers from the clasp of my palm before I responded evenly, "I've only ever been called one name. You had it right the first time."

Sylvius suddenly held up his finger and made a soft click with his tongue, "You see, I thought you'd say that. Which is why _I_ took the liberty of pulling up some old footage from way back when. I'm sure you'll recognize it."

My eyes narrowed as the heir drew out a crimson scroll, opening the wide screen up before playing a video across its visual.

"Your stories always amazed me," he started, dropping the scroll.

The device suddenly split and small thrusters activated, the two halves staying in relative position as they projected a screen into the air above them.

"A small figure, torn and ragged clothing, barely enough on his chest to even call it a shirt. He was a dull, emotionless child, wandering the woods… playing with the Grimm…" he continued, walking with his back toward me as his story continued, "They called him Azrael, bringer of death. They say every village he visited burned asunder once nightfall fell."

Sylvius reached out a pale hand and brushed his fingers across a crystallite sprouting out of the ground, caressing its shine for merely a moment before glancing back at me.

"I grew fascinated with your story when I was younger. Enthralled by the imagery and the emotion, the ruin, but it reminded me of something oh so dear to me that I couldn't get the stories out of my head."

His eyes fell to his associate in the distance before he waved her off, ushering her back the way he came as I watched her walk away.

"The boy in the stories was never the monster the storytellers made him out to be. Oh no, he was so much more than that," Sylvius walked around the holographic screen, the feed displaying a village in chaos filmed by a static-overlaid, shaking camera.

A boy stood amidst the destruction, staring blankly into the carnage with an empty, soulless gaze. Not a drop of blood stained his skin, and the cloth of his torn black shirt and black trousers could only ripple and whip under the burning haze of an inferno billowing from the village's rooftops.

"No… You see, what nobody caught on to… was the fact that this boy, right here," Sylvius stepped forward and brushed the backs of his fingers down the side of the child's face, my head reflexively pulling away as if the same presence touched my own, "was a victim."

Nobody was a victim in this world.

Grimm ran rampant across the screen, pillaging and ravaging the bodies of the villagers, soaking the ground with their scarlet blood as the boy turned his gaze to the one filming.

Then the screen cracked and fell, and the guttural growl of a beowolf tearing into flesh and bone screeched into the recording before the file reached an abrupt end.

"Looking into the matter further, I just had to find out the rest of the story. The most important part, if you will," Sylvius continued flawlessly, holding his hand out at his side as he set his eyes on my own, "I wanted to know how Azrael's story came to be. Like any other story, it had to have a beginning. And like any lost child in the wilderness… they had to have a parent to abandon them to the wolves."

His eyes grew dark as he brushed his hand across the screen and opened up another file. An image.

It was an old rendition of the Black Stallion, several years ago, with a young woman and a young man leaning against each other with bright smiles and even brighter eyes on their faces.

As if the world was ahead of them.

I blocked out their appearances mentally, despite them being right in front of me… for the sole sake of not ripping into Sylvius's throat before he could keep talking.

"Such a happy couple, but I won't get into their stories. I want to keep talking about _yours_. These two happy renegades settled down in Vale, opened up a fresh bar, and decided to finally live a happy life. But uh oh, somebody accidentally got someone pregnant."

He was either trying to get an emotional response out of me… or in some way was trying to piss me off.

My lien was on the latter.

But that being said, why the hell was he so interested in all this?

"They decided on his name the day before he was birthed, not much else being planned for the new inclusion to the family." He swiped to the side, flicking to an array of hospital records. One of which… was a death certificate, "In fact, they had their sights on adoption or… even abortion. How cruel. It would've been the happiest moment of the couple's life, truly… if tragedy hadn't struck it down so abruptly. After all, when the child they didn't plan for drew its first breath, its mother softly exhaled her last."

He couldn't have been more obvious with where he was taking this, especially considering the tone in his voice suddenly grew soft and tender.

If you're spitting fighting words, don't speak them like you're trying to comfort me.

"A plague overtook the hospital, killing all its inhabitants and workers in a single stroke of time, save for one," Sylvius said, smiling as he swiped again and revealed an older picture of my old man, only his smile was gone, seeming like it was never there to begin with, "He was the lone survivor."

If I wasn't so set on actually needing the heir before me for something, I'd have removed his head from his body right then and there. But unfortunately, I had to be polite and not interrupt his speech.

Fine. Continue your rambling. I'm sure you're just _dying_ to tell the rest of it.

"What a horrible father at that, as well. You see, as the hospital collapsed around him to ruins, he brought his only son out into the forest and left him there. He knew no family would take a boy like that, and he certainly knew he didn't have the power to kill it. So… he left it, hoping the Grimm would deal with him if the wildlife didn't."

Sylvius brushed his hand along the floating edge of the scroll between us as he made his way around, my own legs taking me instinctively around the other way to mirror him.

"The Grimm _did_ find the child, alone and helpless. Yet, not a cry nor a tear even came from the boy. And, what the father did _not_ expect… was for the Grimm sent to kill the human boy to take him instead and raise him amongst their own."

Reflective golden eyes turned down as Sylvius turned my way, a small grin gracing his lips as a shadow fell over his eyes from his blonde bangs.

" _That_ … was the man I wanted to meet. And yet, someone different stands before me. What happened? Someone actually point you in the right direction? I mean, my collection of villages Azrael visited are… quite innumerable, surely something had to happen to put an end to it."

I already knew that he knew what happened next, but it was easy to tell that he was waiting for some kind of reaction.

Anything at all… considering I'd been indifferent throughout the whole endeavor under his gaze.

"It's an old urban myth exaggerated over the years of its retelling," I replied, letting my hands slide quietly into my pockets as the two of us slowed to a standstill, "Stories have their ways of getting… blown out of proportion, if you're not careful. Don't believe everything you read."

Sylvius only smiled in return to that as he grabbed his scroll out of the air, sliding it closed in a swift collision before pocketing the device into his golden jacket. The thin cloth held sleekly to his skin, showing off a thin frame to his body beneath and trailing down into a white trim detailing his attire.

Twin coattails dangled down at his back, split down the middle as golden buttons lined down the face of his sealed front. Clean dress pants lined his legs in a darker shade of gold than his jacket, leading down into white sneakers.

He dressed cleanly for a royal cockroach.

His height was the same as mine, as if destiny itself decided it'd be funny to see what'd happen if we stood on even ground.

Literally.

And just like the rest of him, he had clean blonde hair, short and patted down in a mildly messy manner. Most of his bangs, if not all of them, were parted away or only slightly dangling over his face.

Shining gold eyes brimmed with energy as he smirked at me, listening to my words with a cool interest that could only suggest he had the mindset of a man intrigued by _everything_.

And to that extent, he was.

Shining golden irises took me in as I turned away, melting and erupting in their interior colors with seemingly molten storms of rich, luminescent light. Not many irises did that, if at all.

It was power… the same power I sensed the moment I saw him.

Even his goddamn hair flowed softly outside of the movement of his head, drifting on its own by an unnatural wind, overflowing with a potent, surging energy. The very same energy that festered in his eyes and aura.

Two golden rings lay snugly at the base of each of his pointer fingers, rimmed with metal but each one encasing a crystal central layer that wrapped fully around each ring, emitting soft electrical golden glows inside their crystalline structures.

That central encasement emitted the same overwhelming power I sensed down the tunnel behind me, where the woman walked off to.

"I knew I'd like you," he returned, smirking all the more.

Go die in a hole.

He suddenly turned, though, and started heading in the very direction I actually wanted to go, stepping deftly through the crystals at his feet as he gestured for me to follow, "Let's go for a walk. I'm sure you're interested in the energy source you've been sensing since you got here."

I took a page out of Inuba's book and followed like an obedient dog, "You seem to know me. You should know showing me your secrets can lead you to some pretty nasty ends."

Sylvius hummed as he let me fall in line at his side, shaking his head, "I prefer to provide my favor to my friends _and_ my enemies, then wait to see which was which."

"You play for both teams, huh? Sounds like someone on my team," I replied.

"Yes, that's right. You're attending a school now. How is that? Getting good grades?" he asked, glancing over to me as the cavern around us began to grow in luminosity.

"For the most part." I grit my teeth, but answered all the same, "Faculty couldn't be less qualified."

"Tough luck, but at least your team's looking up. Team Elandrial, was it? ELAA?"

That name was only made official yesterday, "Doesn't take a genius to look up a class roster."

"Oh, I'm not claiming to be one, my friend." A pale hand pat my shoulder as golden eyes met mine in a disgusting gaze of neutrality and interest, before he let his arm fall, "But I'm impressed by your teammates. Anoel, the world renowned yet infamous info-broker, and your closest ally. A small little Sparrow flies in your midst as well, going by the name Arex I presume."

He glanced back ahead of us as we conversed, the cavern seemingly getting bigger the further in we strolled.

"And then… a beautiful little fox. Frost fur so white it's like a fresh coat of snow." His voice almost turned whimsical, head turning up to the roof of the cavernous structure around us with a reminiscent smile, "I hear she's a mute."

"She is." Someone made her that way.

"Poor thing," he lowered his gaze again, sympathy falling into his words as he gazed at the ground, "Such a tender creature shouldn't suffer a life of silence alone."

Arex has that covered, "She'll be fine."

"I'm sure she will…"

My eyes looked to the far wall ahead of us, the cavern coming to a flat, abrupt halt to a wall of illuminated golden crystals. Compared to the rest of the cavern, these ones seemed to contain a flowing, lively energy deep inside their thick shell.

The cavern itself felt superficial and created. This… felt _alive_.

"Like what you see?" Sylvius asked, moving ahead of me as he gestured his hand to the softly glowing wall in front of us, energy flicking and shining from within, "It's a mile thick, if you're interested."

"I already know," I said, scanning the immense structure buried beneath rock and stone.

It was a sphere, hollow once you get past the shell encasing whatever lay at the heart of the immense manifestation of energy.

This thing was producing the veins of lightning Dust making up the cavern and the reaching veins that climbed all the way to Remnant's surface far above.

This was the central source to those veins.

"Know what it's called?" he asked calmly, laying his hand on the wall before him.

It was four miles in diameter, its heart fully encased in a shell impossible to penetrate by normal means.

The very proximity to the exterior shell protecting the _real_ energy inside was enough to vaporize anything that drew near enough to touch it, something that made his casual contact with its surface suddenly meaningful.

And it also explained why his associate was idling so far back, considering we passed her on the way.

"A Dust Core," I replied.

His smile couldn't have been more satisfied, "Correct. This is a Lightning Dust Core, the heart of all this Lightning Dust you see around you. Doesn't it just feel… alive? Like it's a living, breathing entity?"

"It does," I humored him, stepping up to the exterior shell and pressing my hand against its surface.

It was warm, the surface harsh against human skin, but the energy inside… felt unmatched.

"The heart that lies within this shell is even more beautiful," Sylvius continued, brushing his fingers across the crystal in front of him before he reached forward and crushed a chunk of the shell in his grasp, leaving a shallow indentation, "But it wishes to protect itself, as you can see."

He dropped the fragments of the shell at his feet, shards striking the floor as the break in the shell he made slowly mended itself. New crystals grew in its place before it flawlessly brought itself back to the way it was.

"I managed to only touch it, for but a brief moment. Nearly died doing it, despite my immunity," Sylvius continued, stepping quietly away from the shell and moving to the side.

He was an Affinity user too. Lightning based.

And now that I finally got a solid read on his energy signature, I realized he was the same presence I felt on the night of the docks incident.

He was there.

"Thought Affinity users were pretty much immune to their own element," I said, taking my hand away from the Core and turning toward the Maestro heir.

"All Affinity users have a high durability to their element of inheritance, and all have a full immunity to the element they put forward using their own energy. Keeps them from hurting themselves, but…" Sylvius turned back, glancing to the Core once more before meeting my eyes, "They can still be consumed. I only lasted a few minutes after I got through the shell."

Those words shouldn't be taken lightly, either. The young man I was looking at, there was one thing that was painfully clear about him from the moment I glanced at his toxic appearance.

He was the most powerful Affinity user I'd met to date.

And his proficiency, knowledge, access to resources, and condescending intellect were all enough to get him to that level… and he's only just began.

He knew too much for an 18-year-old.

* * *

Arex took a deep breath and held it, eyes focusing hard on the door in front of her as she stood with her heels pressed tightly together.

This was exactly why she never personally delivered any prototypes or projects to those who contracted her.

She was out of her element whenever she left her home, her room, or even the forge room. It was this kinda stuff that really ate at her nerves, and knowing that someone on the other side of this door was waiting for something to be repaired by her hands made it even more unbearable.

And to make it worse, the phoenix knew the person she was delivering it to was the grateful type.

She was almost half-hoping the blonde was still out cold from medication or something. Anything to just let her go in, drop the gauntlets off, then leave.

No words spoken… no awkward eye contact made… just in and out in a few short seconds.

Maybe that would be the case? Hopefully?

But that was only getting her hopes up. The receptionist in the infirmary wing's lobby told her to knock before entry.

That could only mean that Yang was awake.

So, that effectively ruined those few rays of hope Arex saw. Now, all she had left to bank on was that the early hours of the morning meant Yang didn't have any visitors.

And knowing Ruby, there was a good chance the reaper was in there at Yang's side as the girl's _only_ visitor.

Which meant Yang's attention would be off Arex and on her sister… She hoped…

 _I'm stalling… like always._ Arex finally released the breath she was holding, hot air cascading nervously out of her lips as she finally reached a small, pale fist forward and knocked her knuckles lightly against the door.

The seconds that passed seemed to tick away at Arex's nerves, grinding slowly enough away for her to hear every tiny sound coming from Yang's infirmary room.

A hazy red blur was the first thing she saw finally transition across the small frosted window encased in the door before the knob turned and the door was pulled open.

Then silver eyes were the next thing to cross her vision.

"Arex?" Ruby pulled the door inward before quickly stepping aside, opening the door most of the way for Arex to walk in, "Wait, are you done already? It's only been a little more than a day."

Arex's soft orange eyes quietly blinked for a moment as the girl bit her lip, stifling the last of her nerves one last time as she nodded, "Y-yeah. I ordered the parts as soon as you gave me the gauntlets and I worked on them that night."

Which was last night, but she felt adding that would be a bit much.

Ruby's eyes widened for a moment as a smirk overtook her face, "That's amazing! I was hoping you'd at least get it done during that week, but I wasn't expecting you to finish it this soon."

"Well," Arex rubbed the back of her neck, switching the weapons box she brought with her containing Ember Celica to her other hand as she glanced away, "With classes starting up after the weekend ends, I figured Yang would want her gear ready before combat class."

"You're incredible, you know that?" Ruby asked, settling into a warm smile before glancing back into the room after a small sign of movement.

"Hey, Rubes? Who's at the door?"

That… must be Yang. But since Ruby's right here, Arex can just hand it off and go, "Ruby, Kit's gonna be waking up soon and I need to be-"

"It's Arex! You know, the girl I told you about?" Ruby's eyes snapped back to Arex just as the girl was raising the box to be handed off.

 _Did she hear what I-_

"Here, come in and meet my sister!" Ruby reached forward for what Arex had a fleeting hope would be for the box, but instead, Ruby's soft grasp found its way to the phoenix's wrist and pulled her inside.

 _So close…_

Arex's orange eyes quickly brightened in color and luster as that particular emotion became more apparent in the young forger, the room's door quietly clicking shut behind them as the phoenix found herself under the gaze of someone she'd yet to meet.

"U-uh, hey," the phoenix greeted nervously, gaze falling on Yang as she sat up comfortably in her bed, orange t-shirt covering what looked like full-body bandages wrapped around most of her skin.

Her arms were left visible, though, seeing as they healed up quickly on their own.

"Oh my god…" Yang's eyes quickly fell on Arex as the girl shrunk under the blonde's widening lilac gaze, "there's two of them."

Before Arex could say any more, Yang took the thin blanket covering the lower half of her body and threw it aside, slipping out of her bed and lowering her feet to the floor to stand.

It took a moment, but Arex managed not to stare at the surprisingly toned and lithe legs suddenly on show, the girl only sporting a pair of black short-shorts beneath her shirt.

"Even similar in height," she continued, making her way in front of Arex with a few quick steps and eyeing her carefully, "No wonder why she li-"

"Yang's recovered!" Ruby suddenly blurted out, pulling a flinch out of Arex as she recoiled backward slightly and interrupted Yang's next comment, "A-as you can see. She's still healing up the last of her internal injuries, but she's almost cleared to go!"

Ruby looked… nervous?

Arex glanced to the girl for a moment, confused to see her rubbing her own neck nervously now as the two sisters exchanged a harsh, family glare.

Was Arex… missing something?

"Aaaanyway," Yang continued, tapping her small sister aside as she made her way to the foot of her own bed and plopped herself up onto its edge, sitting down there, "Ruby told me you were taking care of my babies. Did they give you a hard time?"

Babies? The weight in Arex's hands suddenly reminded her why she was here in the first place as the girl got her bearings again, "Oh, right. They were pretty chipped in several areas and the slides were jammed, a lot of it was dented too, but I managed to buff it all out and replace any broken parts."

Arex took a cautious step forward and placed the box on the foot of Yang's bed, next to the creamy leg she was currently having trouble _not_ looking at.

"They really took a beating, huh," Yang's gaze grew worried as she opened her box, wondering what condition her gauntlets would be in before that gaze suddenly grew wide, "W-what?!"

"Yang? What's wrong?" Ruby quickly zipped to Yang's side, leaning over the side of the bed to look inside the box too.

"They're perfect! They look brand new!" Yang took Ember Celica out of its black confinement and threw them onto her wrists with a subconscious deft familiarity, sliding both gauntlets seamlessly into place before their panels rotated and collapsed to form the brawler's golden bracelets.

Ruby was… still staring.

"I-I took the liberty of-" Arex tried to speak up, but her voice stopped coming out when she saw Yang give a momentarily confused look to the bracelets on her arms.

"Hang on…" She cocked her fist back again, bracelet sliding and extending to form her gauntlet once again before she retracted it, "It feels… smoother?"

Lylac eyes fell on Arex as the phoenix reworded what she was about to say.

"It should feel that way, yeah. I've never really seen weapons of this model before, so when I took her apart to repair her, I made your momentum trigger system a bit more sensitive and consistent," Arex focused her eyes on Ember Celica instead of Yang's irises, finding it easier to speak if she wasn't making that kind of extended eye contact, "I didn't want to change anything without permission, so I just tried my best to clean them up and make whatever systems already in place a bit more efficient-"

"Is it alright if I hug you?"

Yang's interjection caused Arex to snap her eyes back up to Yang's and pause in what she was saying, cheeks burning a little red under what was just said before Ruby nudged Yang's shoulder with her own.

"Yaaaang, can't you see that she's-"

"I'm hugging her anyway."

Arex's eyes went wide as Yang slipped from her bed and enveloped her in a suddenly tight hug, a startling amount of strength behind her arms for someone who'd just been heavily injured.

"I can't thank you enough for taking care of them and fixing them up," Yang said, tucking her chin over Arex's shoulder as the girl went stiff, "It really means a whole lot to me."

She didn't even know what to do with her hands, just keeping them pressed at her sides as she felt the voluptuous blonde press comfortably against her.

Not like she can move them anyway with Yang's arms around her like this.

"I don't know you very well, but thank you," Yang whispered, tightening her embrace ever so slightly and squeezing a small helpless squeak out of Arex's throat, "Aww! You're so huggable!"

"Yang, you're suffocating her!" Ruby quickly pulled Yang out of Arex's infiltrated personal bubble and quickly took the phoenix by the shoulders, holding them gently as a worried silver gaze locked with Arex's own, "You okay? Your face was getting red."

Arex's lungs ached but she managed to nod to the reaper, taking a step back to recover the breaths she'd been denied, "I-it's fine."

The phoenix glanced passed Ruby and saw a giddy but apologetic Yang standing behind her, but she guessed it was only right for the older sister to get thankful in her own way, "I'm glad everything worked out. It looks like you've recovered pretty quickly too, so your friends must be happy to see you okay."

"Oh yeah, they'd be bummed if I kicked the can out there," Yang replied with a laugh, her hand holding her side for a moment in grimace before she dropped it, "Still not 100%, but getting there. I'm just still a little surprised Blake spent the night."

Lilac eyes glanced over Arex's shoulder for a moment as Yang looked to the corner, and the small suspicion that arose was enough for Arex to glance over as well to see a raven-haired girl curled up and sleeping on three aligned waiting chairs.

Her fair skin was almost forbiddingly smooth, a tight black and white outfit fitting the rise and fall of her curvy figure elegantly as Arex visually traced down the girl's side and hips.

 _T-that's Blake?_

Arex gulped dryly and, despite some clothing being a bit disheveled, found herself staring at what she'd quickly realized was an almost feline beauty asleep in the chairs in the same small room as herself.

She couldn't see past the girl's long, curled up legs, but she noticed they were encapsulated by full leggings, gradually fading from black to purple down to her ankles. Blake ankle-socks adorned her feet, the girl's choice of black low-heeled boots resting down beside her chairs and within reach.

Coattails draped down at the back of her waist, trailing up into a buttoned black vest with only a high-necked sleeveless white shirt beneath it, cropped to show her flat stomach.

A pair of white shorts sat at the peak of the raven-haired girl's leggings, almost completing her ensemble.

The rest seemed to be accessories…

Arex counted quite a few. Black ribbons seemed to be wound tightly around her wrists and forearms, then a small, loose scarf rested lightly around her neck, just barely caressing her nape. Lastly, as Arex followed the girl's lower back length hair, she found a large bow atop her head.

All the accessories were black as well.

One thing that contrasted that theme was the catseye styled purple eyeshadow the girl wore, only reminding Arex of her preference to avoid makeup in most cases.

If not all cases.

Anoel always told her she didn't need it, since Arex was one of the few who actually didn't require it to look cute or pretty.

Or, so Anoel said. Though, it seemed that really was the case with Arex.

But… the eyeshadow probably brings out the girl's eyes… which Arex was kind of wishing she could see right now, but knew it wasn't right to stay long enough for the girl to wake up.

"Blake's my partner, if you're wondering."

Yang's voice suddenly brought Arex back to the fact she was standing in the middle of a room full of other girls, and reminded her that she should probably get going.

" _Actually_ , she was why we were even out there that night to begin with. She sorta blamed herself for my injuries, but it's all good. I came out perfectly fine in the end _aaaaand_ walked away with an enhanced set of gauntlets to top it off!" Yang exclaimed, her words causing a small stir in the girl sleeping in the corner as her bow fluttered.

Right. Time to go.

Arex's nerves were suddenly flaring again at the prospect of actually getting a chance to look into the sleeping girl's eyes, and she had a quickly forming apprehension to do just that.

"I-I'm just glad you're alright," Arex said, turning around on her heel before starting to make for the door, "Plus, working on your weapons was actually pretty fun, so I didn't mind the long night."

"Wait, hold up!" Yang started to follow, causing Arex to quicken her pace a little and grasp the handle of her exit, "You can't just up and leave without us figuring out how I can repay you! You did all this and likely dropped everything just to do it."

"It's fine. The gratitude's enough and like I said, it was fu-"

"Nuh uh, not getting off that easy." A sturdy hand flashed into Arex's vision with a hint of reflective gold as it pressed itself firmly against the door Arex was just opening, effectively slamming it shut again, "Now, how much do I owe you?"

Arex silently sighed and turned around, trapped between the inner wall of the room and an imposing blonde brawler who was only looking for a way to be even more grateful.

She was really pushy with this…

"Really, it's-"

Yang narrowed her eyes, snapping Arex's mouth closed again before the girl looked away.

 _Really_ pushy.

"So? What'll it be?" Lilac irises drew slightly closer as Arex stepped back, finding the wall suddenly pressing into her as her delicate hands pushed against the hard surface at her sides.

"Yang?"

A new voice suddenly filtered into the atmosphere of the small infirmary room as there was a small shifting in the corner of the room, causing Arex to stifle another deep breath, as if the silence would actually hide her presence.

"What are you doing?" Blake asked calmly.

Yang smirked and stepped aside, letting both Blake's and Arex's eyes meet for the first time as she kept her hand on the door.

"Oh! Nothing. Just wondering how to repay Arex, is all."

 _T-they were… amber…_

* * *

 **Sylvius is fun to write for XD (but not as fun as Arex or Niro). But still really fun. I hope he comes across the way I want him to for you all. As to whether or not they'll fight… I don't know yet.**

 **Arex! What are you going to do?! You're surrounded by three girls, one burning hot, one adorably cute, and one gracefully beautiful.**

 **What's your next plan of action?**

 **She's… she's not answering.**

 **Arex is so adorable. She's soooo out of her element. Anyway, this chapter gave you two sides to a coin.**

 **Dark mysterious exposition and fluffy canon interaction.**

 **Hope you enjoyed it.**

 **For now, _Favorite_ and _Follow_.**

 **I look forward to seeing _REVIEWS_ for this. You'll be introduced to a LOT of concepts of mine. Feel free to give me your thoughts.**

 **Cya XP**


	31. Blondes

Rogue Huntsman

Blondes

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Arex let out a mental whine, _really_ hoping nobody in the room heard it as she stared into those amber eyes.

 _W-why?_ It was the only word echoing in her own mind. _Why does she have to be my type…?_ The phoenix complained, finally looking away.

"Repay her for what?" Blake's voice continued, amber eyes glancing back to Yang as the short girl against the wall dragged her eyes to the floor.

"She repaired my weapons and now she's trying to walk away like she didn't do anything," Yang replied evenly, flashing a smirk toward her partner before removing her hand from the door.

Confident Arex wouldn't leave in the middle of a conversation.

And she was right… to Arex's dismay.

"Oh?" Amber eyes turned back to Arex's orange irises, the shy girl meeting the gaze after a moment, "Arex, right?"

The girl could only give a tiny nod.

"I've seen you in the library once or twice. Never took you for a blacksmith," Blake commented, tightening her boots into place before finally standing.

"Neither did I. She doesn't really look like she hangs around the forges as much as she does," Yang replied, making her way back to her bed and fortunately dragging Blake's gaze with her.

That gave Arex a moment to take a silent breath, but not quite out of everyone's sight. The small girl soon looked over to see Ruby giving her an apologetic smile, something she appreciated, for what it was worth.

But still, this was a bit much for her.

"Yang, I think we can let Arex go for now. We can figure something out later," Ruby reasoned, soon breaking her gaze with Arex to glance over to her sister.

The blonde only rolled her eyes at the suggestion, "That's fine." Lilac orbs soon turned to Arex and caused her to go a little rigid, considering an amber gaze followed Yang's own, "But only _if_ you accept the thanks, yeah?"

R-right… she figured that was fair, at least.

"D-depends what it is," Arex finally replied, her hands fiddling with the hem of her thin sweater, something that brought a small twitch out of Blake's bow.

"Sure sure," Yang waved dismissively, sliding the empty weapons box aside as she crossed her legs beneath herself, "I'll make it something you can't refuse."

She can certainly try…

Arex gave an affirmative nod, pulling another grin out of Yang as the phoenix glanced to the other two in the room.

"It was nice meeting you," she said softly, not noticing the curious smirk curling across Blake's lips.

"Likewise," the cat faunus replied, though, it wasn't much of a meeting.

"Can't wait to see you around, Arex," Yang waved with a playful demeanor, eyes widening for a moment as she realized something, "You're Kitsuki's partner, right?"

Arex was a bit taken aback by the question, but she nodded affirmatively to it.

Yang's eyes couldn't have gotten wider, muttering something under her breath about that partnership being the cutest thing ever.

Yeah, time to go.

"Will I see you in the library sometime?" Blake asked, catching Arex as she turned the handle to the door.

The phoenix glanced back momentarily over her shoulder before dipping her head, pulling the door open, "Probably."

Blake smiled again as Arex slipped out, the action going amiss again as the girl made her way out into the hallway and let the infirmary door seal shut behind her.

Now that she was finally out of sight, she took a silent, shaky breath, then started making her way down the hallway. But she was stopped before she could turn the corner as the door to Yang's room clicked open behind her.

"Oh! Right!" Yang's voice echoed down the corridor as the blonde's golden mane leaned out of her room, the girl spotting Arex down the way.

Arex turned slightly to see what else the girl wanted.

"Just wanted to let you know that I think you're really cute!" Yang called over to her, a cheeky grin playing across her face as she winked then disappeared back inside her infirmary room.

The poor phoenix could only turn away, blush seeping deeper into her cheeks as she rounded the corner.

She was _reeeeeally_ hoping Yang wouldn't pull anything on her when it was time to cash in.

But with everything that just happened, those hopes were quickly dying as the shy forger stared blankly ahead of her and left the building.

* * *

Golden lightning sparked around Sylvius as he gestured for me to follow, the sounds of the crackling, relentlessly reforming cavern around us growing low in tone before silencing into a deep, resounding crawl.

The two of us moved back down the corridor, his associate remaining motionless as she stared at the shell.

"So, tell me, you didn't come down here on curiosity alone. You have a much more… personal reason," Sylvius stated, the two of us stopping for a moment, "What brought you down here, Mister Ezdeil?"

The bright teal eyes of his associate finally caught up to us as she glanced to where we were standing.

"Just looking for a small piece of information," I replied.

That was all.

"Oh? Something I might know that your beautiful information broker doesn't?" The heir smiled, the two of us moving again and leaving his associate's awareness behind, "I'm flattered. What can I do for my dear old Niro Ezdeil that she cannot, I wonder?"

"Nothing you should be excited about," I said, walking alongside him as his body bristled and sparked with his electrical energy, "The incident involving the death of a bartender, the same person you were so adamant to tell me about, how much do you know about what happened to him?"

Now that I knew he may have known something, this trip may not have been that big of a waste of time as I'd thought.

If I could shortcut myself to the killer… I didn't need to stick around that cancerous academy anymore. I could leave it, find whoever it was that gunned down one of the few people I actually respected, and maybe just personally drag them into the depths of hell once I'm done with them.

Hell and Beacon aren't much different, anyway.

Wouldn't even matter, either. Arex and Kitsuki were happily getting along without Anoel and me now, so it wouldn't change much. I'm barely there as it is.

They're practically already a team of two.

Though… Sylvius's growing smile couldn't have been more irritating.

"Precious… it truly is," he brushed his fingers along the crystals to his left before waving his associate over, the girl soon leaning away from the wall as the energy cascading from Sylvius's skin suddenly dispersed, "Tavi, let's head out."

Tavi… Sounded short for something.

Aside from the hair earlier, I took in her actual appearance this time to see if I could get a read on her. She didn't draw any weapon during our short fight, didn't look like she needed to, but looking at her now…

She didn't have any kind of real weapon on her.

Smart.

On top of that, she looked more scanty than fully dressed. She was confident.

But anyone could've put that one together from the little spout we had.

Bright teal eyes switched to me as the faunus gave a low growl, her hands remaining down at her sides as she strolled back up to Sylvius's side.

An open, light brown leather jacket draped down just past her hips, the material clasped only in a single place by a strap that fell just across her upper chest. Peeking out from the tip of the open attire that fanned out to her legs, was the black cloth of a tight, compression half-shirt.

Showing off an ample amount of her tanned stomach and toned torso through the open curtains of her semi-long jacket.

Pouches and pockets lay conveniently throughout the design of her upper body's main cover, leading down to lightly drape over a tight pair of formfitting, white cargo short-shorts, fitted snugly with a black belt with a golden clasp.

Tavi wasn't looking like the kind to conceal her weapons, let alone her body, given the fact her jacket was the most covering part of her attire.

Lithe, strong legs were almost on full show as more tanned skin breathed in the open air beneath the hem of her jacket, which trailed down just a few inches past her already short pair of shorts. They eventually supply curved down to show how they slipped into brown, laced boots, the slim footwear sporting white laces and black trim.

Each boot spanned up past her upper calves.

Then only on her right thigh, she had a tight, thin belted holster clasped around her long leg that had three black throwing daggers sheathed through it.

She was the agile type.

The annoying kind.

My lime green eyes eventually met back up with her reflective, almost hungry teal irises, Tavi knowing full well where I was looking and seemingly basking in it with her stride.

But she never said a word.

She passed the two of us as Sylvius started to follow her toward the exit, my question still lingering in the air.

"I wish I can give you a hard piece of evidence, Niro," Sylvius spoke toward me again, his eyes watching Tavi walk ahead of us as he responded, "But the incident with your father has none. It's easy to find a witness, a bullet casing, even a footprint… but it was never investigated nor overlooked."

Damnit…

"It was buried," he finished, shaking his head almost solemnly, "A shame, really. From what I hear, he was a menace."

Menace was an understatement. Beyond that, the very word belonged to me… not my old man.

"For a man who had no accessible aura, he did more than any other man I know of, and yet he still fell."

Sylvius made his way out with his associate, my boots stopping me just before the cavern's exit as he turned illuminated golden eyes back to mine.

"Be seeing you, Niro. And, do enjoy your time in Beacon. I hear you've been busy over there." The heir gave a courteous bow as Tavi leaned against the wall again.

"Don't count on either of those," I replied, watching as he smirked one last time before taking Tavi around the waist and walking his way out.

A couple moments later, the dark cave he disappeared into that lead back into the ravine flashed in a golden hue, and I felt the sky rumble in the passing wake of a bolt of lightning.

And then his presence was gone.

He gave me one crucial piece of evidence after all.

Somebody put the effort forward to make sure none of the evidence surrounding my old man's case made it to see the light…

Still… so much for a shortcut.

I made my way out as well, walking back through the base of the ravine before jumping my way to the surface.

The ground still felt energized when I landed heavily on the grass over the rift's ridge, a subtle electrical current running through my legs as I headed back toward Beacon.

A couple fried carcasses of small animals laid dead between the trees, but I paid them no mind.

Even though some of them were adolescent grimm.

I stepped carelessly over the rotting corpse of a dead beowolf, wading through bloodless grass as the soft undergrowth of the forest fluttered against the rising winds of an imminent storm.

The wind brushing beneath the rim of my hat seemed to remind me the sky was responding with my current mood.

Dark, dreary, and unfortunately… stifling an irritatingly large pool of annoyance.

Yet, even with the electrical currents rushing through my nervous system, I picked up the telltale signs of a creature prowling through the thick branches of the surrounding foliage of bushes and leaves.

"You don't seem like one to lurk in electrified brush," I muttered, glancing toward the noise.

I couldn't sense anything else in the area, so it was alone. And considering it wasn't dead, it was something powerful.

"Stop staring and ju-"

Something heavy and breathing careened into my side from out of sight, tackling me to the ground as we rolled.

And even after rolling back into a spring to kick the creature off, it managed to cling onto me further and eventually pin me to the forest floor.

The hell? I couldn't sense it… And what I sensed earlier was gone.

Since when could grimm create decoys…

Piercing scarlet eyes bore down into my own, the glowing orbs engulfed in a mane of thick, black fur as the muscular body of a black lion crushed both its large paws into my shoulder blades.

Scraping claws dug into my skin to hold me there as I stared up at it, its teeth soon barring as it growled.

"Bite me," I growled back, narrowing my gaze in return to the imposing creature, "But if you're wondering… No, I don't pull lightning bolts out of my privileged pants."

The lion's gaze suddenly grew sharper as it pressed down and pushed my back flush with the cold ground. More teeth soon bore open as the predator thundered through a low, guttural growl that seemed to reverberate off the trees.

Its hind legs eventually tensed and I felt its chest breach itself with air, then the surrounding tree tops all nearly ripped themselves apart, threatening to pull the forest's roots from the hard ground as the lion roared down into my face.

Rocks, dirt, and underbrush ripped away in a spanning concussive blast around us before it was over, the lion snapping its maw shut and staring down at me again.

The lethality in its gaze was melting away.

"We're done here," I stated, seeing that it was done stroking its imposing ego.

I quietly pushed myself up onto my elbows, despite the lion shifting to try to push me back down.

With a casually sigh, I stood up fully and pulled his paws off me, letting them fall heavily back to the forest floor as I looked around.

The inner part of every tree in the surrounding radius of a mile was shattered, the reverberations likely carrying whatever splinters those trunks and branches broke into far out of the area.

It wasn't my mess to clean up.

A softer growl emanated from below my gaze as I fixed my hat, feeling a warm body brush gently against my leg.

The action tore my focus back down to the lion, its eyes closed for a few moments before glancing back up to me.

"Don't cozy up to me. Everything that tries ends up dead or worse," I said, nudging the grimm's nose away with the back of my bare hand before glancing off to the side.

The lion didn't turn away. Instead, it purred and pushed its flicking ears into my extended hand.

Annoying.

I scratched its ear once before turning and heading off, ignoring the fact that the creature's fur felt cold around its mane.

"We're not the same, so stop thinking that," I muttered, brushing aside the split trunk of a towering tree as I walked.

I wasn't surprised to hear his steps following.

His purr was getting irritating, especially since he stayed at my side for another mile and a half.

Actually, make that two miles now.

"Turn back. I'm no-"

The slight rustle of a cluster of leaves caught my attention and I shifted my gaze to the bushes, the lion at my side perking its ears up and growling in the same direction.

"Beowolves." From the sound of the pack, there were about five just behind the brush, "They never seem to learn."

I flexed my gloved hand as my eyes sparked with green energy, glowing wires beginning to engulf and circle my forearm as I stepped forward.

Only to stop again when the lion stepped in front of me with a territorial growl.

Its haunches grew low before I suddenly caught a surge of energy emanating from the beast's body, a bristling, chilling wind suddenly churning through the trees as I looked up to see the leaves above freezing over in a frostbiting white mist.

So… that's what I felt earlier…

The beowolves I sensed slowly made their way out of the bushes, growling back as they prowled low to the ground and scraped the dirt.

When I made a move to step forward again to eliminate them, the lion stepped more into my way and stopped me, keeping its gaze on the five wandering toward us in their insatiable bloodlust.

"What are you-"

The lion growled again, shaking his mane before planting its haunches into the ground and tearing into the freezing grass, white mist whipping out of its mane as it snarled.

Black fur suddenly shined for a brief moment before I watched the creature's appearance change as it breached its breast with air again and opened its maw.

The mane was the first to transition, brimming with white, misty energy before being overtaken by the hue and completely flashing into a pale, festering white color.

What was once pure black fur transitioned into white as the lion tensed the muscles in its body and roared, the deep, reverberating ring encasing something within it that wasn't there the last time I witnessed this.

Deep inside the inflection of the thunderous reverberation laid a resonating, crystalline whine.

A small, rising noise grew as the lion pushed forward and turned its head, growling through the roar before surging its body forward, claiming this territory as its own.

It was rare to see a beowolf show fear… But what was intriguing was these beowolves were quick to submit to the lion, stepping back before getting down on all fours and planting their jaws onto the ground.

Each of the five quietly whimpered as the lion finally closed its maw, releasing an icy mist from its nose at it snarled once more then nodded them away.

The five backed off with their maws dragging along the icy ground, crawling backward before taking off once out of site.

After a few moments, the misty white tiger turned a tilted, smug red gaze up toward me.

"Congratulations, you just told a couple children to piss off," I replied, letting the energy fade from my glove as I stepped around the lion, crunching frozen blades of grass into the ground, "I'll bake you a cake to celebrate."

The lion rolled its eyes at me, as if it had a personality, before it continued to follow.

If it intended to stick around, I was going to lead it straight to the academy.

It's always best to show predators where you live.

That way, you can invite them in for dinner and pour their throats out onto the carpet of your living room once you remove their head from their body.

Only… this one seemed intent to just cozy up to me.

I was just hoping it'd pick up the habit of making students disappear. It'd be more interesting than classes could ever be, and would do the world a favor in the long run.

* * *

Arex couldn't quite catch her breath until she was back outside and in the open air. The stone pathway of the walkway outside met her sneakers as she clutched her chest tightly, wondering why Yang had to trap her like that.

The blonde's comment still clung to the phoenix's recent thoughts, causing her to lock up in a blush again before she shook her head frantically to dispel it.

It was just so out of the blue…

"Ah, you're Arex, right?"

A new voice suddenly filtered into her mind as she snapped her attention back to the world around her and to a nearby tree.

"Y-yeah?" Arex replied without thinking, orange eyes turning to the feminine voice, only to quickly look away with a shy, silent gulp.

W-what was with her luck and blondes today…

Blue eyes gazed at the poor girl in interest as a monkey faunus pushed away from the tree she was leaning against and jogged over to Arex's side, taking a moment to glance up to a high window as she did so.

"You came from Yang's room, so I wanted to ask you something," she said, her eyes suddenly widened though as she backtracked on her words and rubbed the back of her neck, her mildly short, unkempt blonde hair rustling slightly in the wind, "Uh, don't ask me how I knew that."

"I won't," Arex replied quietly, turning back to her for a moment now.

She wasn't here for Arex, she was here for someone else.

That made this easier.

"Do you know her?" the phoenix asked, glancing up to the noticeably taller girl, a golden monkey tail swishing and flicking back and forth behind the other girl's curvy waist.

"Not exactly," she replied, lowering her hand as her gaze grew a little more serious, "I know her partner though."

Black fingerless gloves rested slimly over the monkey faunus's hands, trailing back to lead all the way up her forearms and halfway up her upper arms.

The material almost had what looked to be leather-like armored padding covering it, the padding painted a dark shade of red and segmented in certain places to allow full movement.

Arex couldn't help but notice the girl wore a collared white dress shirt with shorter than normal sleeves, the thin attire having an open, V-neck design to show her ample chest size.

What made it worse was how the shirt clung tightly to the female's curvaceous frame, the hem of it having been tied taught up just beneath the girl's bust.

It showed off her finely tuned stomach incredibly well, and to top it off, the shirt also revealed toned upper arms.

The phoenix couldn't stop glancing back to the girl's noticeable and on-show abs, but while she was down there, she noted the girl wore a tight-fitting pair of jean short-shorts. To compliment her shirt, she threaded a thin, white belt around its waist and wore white wrappings wound around the upper most parts of her thighs.

The binding fabric peeking out a few inches from the incredibly short hems of her shorts.

Red and black combat boots were the last thing Arex saw before she suddenly remembered the girl had just asked her a question.

R-right…

"I-I'd assume you're talking about Blake, right?" Arex asked, tearing her gaze back up to the blonde's eyes and trying not to trace the finely tuned and tight, flowing curves of the monkey faunus's body.

"Yes! You saw her?" she asked excitedly, her long monkey tail perking up behind her.

She didn't seem to notice where Arex's eyes had been, thankfully.

The phoenix could only nod slightly before continuing, "I don't know her very well. I just met her today."

"That's fine, I just wanted to know if she was alright," the girl replied, breathing a sigh of relief as she brushed her tail down, "Did she mention anyone though? Possibly by the name of Suni Wukong? If she did, she probably talked about something incredibly awesome that I di- I mean, _she_ did. Yeah."

"No, not that I can recall. She was asleep when I walked in and didn't look hurt," Arex replied, deadpanning in her own mind that she'd figured out the girl's name by now, "I take it you're Suni?"

Suni gave a curt nod and a grin, "Yup, that's me. I helped Blake out at the docks before the others showed up. What gave me away?"

Arex held up a finger for a moment as she considered telling her upfront, but decided against it, "Your… tail?"

"Ah, right!" Suni grabbed her tail and shoved it out of sight, giving Arex a short laugh, "Pretty dead giveaway, huh?"

Arex's eyes drifted to the side for a moment as she hummed, "Mhmm. You… said you were there? At the docks?"

That incident was a mess of emotions, but the phoenix found herself glad that nobody got killed.

Especially because Ruby was involved…

"Yeah, kicked some Fang butt while I was at it too," Suni replied, rubbing her neck again, "Although, that Torchwick guy gave me a good beating. And then that cowboy showed up out of nowhere."

 _Cowboy…? Wait._

"Cowboy?"

Suni nodded, "Clad in black, couldn't see his features too well though. Couldn't hear his voice either. I don't know if it was the ringing in my ears or just the docks, but I couldn't hear what they were saying."

"They?" Arex asked curiously, but also in worry.

"Yeah, looked like Torchwick and him knew one another. Didn't see much more than that, unfortunately," Suni explained, almost sounding slightly meek there.

"That's fine… Um, do me a favor and forget you ever saw that cowboy," Arex muttered quietly, tilting her head a bit as she smiled at the girl in front of her, hoping she'd just drop it.

"Forget? How could I? The entire docking port went haywire while he was there."

"It's probably best you don't look into it," Arex pressed, almost looking pleadingly at Suni as her smile grew smaller, "I don't want you getting hurt if you get involved with what he gets up to."

Suni laughed lightly at that before planting a swift hand onto Arex's head, giving the girl's raven hair a soft rub, "I can take care of myself, so don't worry about me."

A faint blush rose to Arex's cheeks as she felt a tiny rumble deep in her chest, the phoenix quickly choking down and stifling a cooed purr as her blush deepened.

Unfortunately, she couldn't get it all down in time.

The hand on her head suddenly pulled away as Suni blinked for a brief moment, staring at Arex in front of her before noticing how her eyes flashed orange and glanced away.

"S-sorry," Arex quietly said, her shoulders shrinking as she gripped them hem of her sweater tightly in hot hands beneath the stare, "I-I wasn't expecting you to-"

Her voice stopped working as she felt the hand return to her head, giving it another rub.

"Cute…"

Arex's breath locked up for the umpteenth time today as she internally whined.

That makes the second blonde today to call her that…

* * *

The lion's fur was back to the shimmering black it once was as we stood in the heavy rain just outside of Beacon's outskirts.

A new storm brood above, following me like it always did as I stared up at the distant towers of the academy.

Streams of water poured from the lip of my hat as I tipped it up to the sky, my gloved hand feeling the lion's wet fur brushing against it before I subconsciously let my fingers scratch its fur.

"You've already done enough," I muttered into the festering storm, eyes remaining fixed on the swirling clouds as I felt him sit down beside me, "Why come back?"

A quiet growl rumbled into my arm and leg as the lion's weight settled onto the puddling ground.

"Guess I was asking too much for a straight answer…"

His head left my hand as I stepped forward, leaving the black lion behind as I dragged the storm over toward Beacon Academy.

Looked like he was content to just watch me go now.

* * *

 ***sigh* Another storm, another long night for Kitsuki. But no worries, Arex has a plan. And ah** **, yes, new friends are nice. But I don't think any friends were made this chapter.**

 **At least, not on Niro's end.**

 **Arex's end… well, that's a different story altogether. She made TONS of friends today xD.**

 **I hope it was adorable.**

 **I'm wondering what you'll think of what happened, though… *wonders if the theories will start to form… but already knowing nothing will come close to the actual truth***

 ***glances at lion***

 **For now,** _ **Favorite**_ **and** _ **Follow**_ **.**

 **I look forward to seeing** _ **REVIEWS**_ **for this. You'll be introduced to a LOT of concepts of mine. Feel free to give me your thoughts.**

 **Cya XP**


	32. Disruption

Rogue Huntsman

Disruption

«»

"Still can't open your eyes or are you actually over the fact that you're up in the air without any control over where you're going?" Anoel asked, holding the girl in her arms close to her chest as she took her above the clouds.

The morning sun had passed by now, the two of them having been up in the air for the majority of the start of the day by now as the evening sun sat overhead.

Its light wrapped around the contours of the white clouds around them beautifully, wrapping around the wispy mounds of rolling hills with a colorful depth that really did put an ocean to shame with its bright hues.

"T-this is too high!" Ly whimpered, screwing her eyes shut as tight as she could.

"Are you sure?" Ano asked with a widening grin, "How can you tell if you can't see?"

Taking the two a little lower, Anoel brought them closer to the surface of the clouds. She floated just out of reach of them, but focused on keeping her beats gentle to avoid displacing the illusory ground spanning below.

"I-I still feel like you're punishing me for the joke I made." Ly fearfully buried her face deeper into the crook of Anoel's neck.

"Of course not," Anoel replied with an unconvincing inflection, "But if we went any lower, you'd only be reminded just how high up we are. At least above the clouds, you can't see the ground through them."

"Doesn't make it any less scary, Ano," Ly tentatively pried a single azure eye open, surveying the open sky around them, "I can't just ignore the fact that we're hundreds of meters above the surface… _without_ a parachute…"

Anoel rolled her golden eyes and glanced down to the hesitant gaze just below her chin, "Ly, I _am_ your parachute."

The phoenix's gaze stayed locked with Ly's for a moment longer before letting her smile lighten a bit in its amusement.

"Do you want me to fly us like we did your first time?"

"I-it would help…"

Ano's gaze softened as she nodded to that, taking the girl she held in a bridal carry and slowly bringing her face closer to her own.

She kept her wings' beats slow and gentle as she tilted them back, gradually shifting the tight grip she had on Ly's body so the girl could straddle her instead.

Once she felt her legs wrap firmly around her waist and lock with the curve of her hips, she tilted them back fully before pushing down with her wings and taking them into a horizontal glide.

Anoel's back facing the clouds.

With Ly feeling like she was resting on something rather than being carried, Anoel quickly brought one hand up to rest supportively on Lylac's upper back while her other stayed tightly wound around the thief's lower.

"How's this?" Anoel asked softly, her glide almost looking effortless as she trusted her body to keep them steady, "Can you see my eyes? I think they're bluer than yours."

"Anoel…" Ly breathed out, her heart rate gradually decreasing as she felt herself calm down, "I can _feel_ how blue they are…"

With her eyes fully opened now, Ly was able to gaze into the vast sea of clouds, finding herself suddenly staring in awe at the sight, despite her vertigo.

The phoenix's smirk couldn't have been wider in response to that.

"Good, you didn't stutter that time," she commented, her voice falling into a comforting tone as her irises melted back into a golden shine, "But I lied… Now that I can see your eyes, mine can never be that blue."

Ano couldn't help but tilt her gaze with a bright, supportive smile, looking to distract the girl's mind rather than get it worked up.

"You're lucky your Affinity has a calming effect," Ly commented, still fascinated by the scenery to pay the phoenix any direct attention, "There's no way in hell anyone else would have convinced me to go this high up."

"I think you're forgetting something," Anoel replied, tightening her hold to draw Ly's quizzical eyes back to her own, "You're the only one I want to take up here with me."

Ly's cheeks flushed ever so slightly, "Oh, you make me feel _so_ special."

Anoel felt her smirk grow just a little bit wider at that, "Really? I thought it was pretty obvious. After all… even with this gorgeous view around us, where do you think my eyes have been this whole time? I don't need to go this high up to find a view this beautiful."

"You can stop hitting on me, Ano," Ly's blush intensified, "I mean, you already got laid so easily…"

Her attempts at discouragement… were incredibly futile.

Anoel's grin made it ever so painfully clear of that.

"So? I like stroking your ego," Anoel said with an earnest gaze, but that gaze quickly turned amused again as she set herself up for her next few words, "Besides, I love seeing you blush."

Ly whined and buried her face back into Ano's shoulder, "It's not as enjoyable when you do that… If anything, it's embarrassing."

Anoel loved this, bringing her lips close to Ly's ear to whisper her next response.

"It's best when you're embarrassed."

The warm skin of Anoel's neck felt something hotter press into it as Lylac whined a little more, "Stop that…"

"Stop?" Anoel ghosted her soft lips over the edge of Ly's ear before giving it a small nip, "Why? You don't even notice we're _flying_ anymore."

Ly's eyes widened a fraction of an inch as she stiffened, but that tension quickly melted away as she relaxed again and sighed, "You did it _again_ … I don't know how, but you always manage to make me fall into this sense of security when I'm with you."

That had always been her intent.

Even from the start.

But that wouldn't stop her from getting just one more blush out of the girl on top of her.

"Well…" Ano leaned in a little closer as she let a hot breath crash lightly against the sensitive nip she left behind on Ly's ear, " _Now_ you can say you rode a girl to cloud nine in more ways than one."

Anoel knew she'd succeeded once Ly went quiet and hot after that.

However…

A soft crackle of energy filtered through the black feathers of Anoel's wings as she glanced up for a moment.

The air was growing colder, and with a quick glance to the side, she saw the white clouds beneath them melting away into a graying expanse of electrified stormy hills.

Ly's eyes finally cracked open now too once she felt Anoel's attention stray, a small grimace scrunching up her nose for a moment as her legs tightened their hold, "You know… I don't really favor getting my pajamas soaked today."

"That's not what you said this morning," Anoel rectified her casually, somehow keeping to her distractedly hormonal demeanor despite her concern, "You're still in just panties and a shirt either way, so it's not going to be horrible if you get drenched."

"But I'll be _cold_ …" Ly whimpered.

Anoel was strangely turned on by that…

But she ignored that small fleeting thought and righted their flight, holding Ly close to her body by the lower back and waist as she felt both Lylac's arms and legs do the same.

She let the shaky girl lock her chin over her slim shoulder as she warmed the electrified air around them, soothing those shivers out of Ly's chilling skin as the two floated over to a gap in the clouds.

They'd drifted far over into the Emerald Forest, by the looks of it.

But something flashed beneath them, the covering of trees far below shaking violently as a bolt of golden lightning shot out of the ground and ripped across the canopy of leaves in a blink of blinding light.

"This doesn't look like my apartment…" Ly muttered quietly.

"You're right," Anoel replied evenly, but her eyes narrowed to the growing concern of what just happened, "Your apartment doesn't sprout lightning out of its foundation."

Ly's eyes turned down to see the flash of lightning fade, its bolt disappearing toward the city, "Not that I know of."

The gap in the clouds soon closed as Anoel felt the winds shift, her wings bringing the both of them higher into the air before turning back.

"Guess it's time to go."

* * *

' _Storm's arriving, and it's starting to rain. I'll be in the forge when you decide to come down.'_ Arex typed, lying her scroll back on her forge as she sent the message to her partner.

The room was effectively empty, void of anyone else as she turned her eyes back down to the disassembled processors she'd been working on for Ray.

A small crumble of stone fell to the floor in the background as the temperature of the room rose, the indent in the wall still there after Ray took flight the last time she was in here.

An intricate array of the digital pieces lay just hovering over the surface of her work area as she spun it around, finding the holographic display of what she'd work on next as she enhanced it to overtake the rest of the projection.

"For something so small… this needed a lot of pieces working together to even get close to the output he needs…" she muttered, moving over to her collection of parts and tools Kitsuki organized and plucking out what she needed for this segment.

Everything needed to be resistant to high temperatures, which made the melting points of everything involved rather high. That partially explained why Ray came to her… if he even knew about her Affinity at all.

She didn't know at this point how much he knew about her. But he had access to her records, wherever they may have been.

She wouldn't put it past him to just dump the most tedious part of his project off onto her while he focused on the rest of it. She was most known for her intricate designs over anything on a larger scale, mainly because she was careful and creative with her infrastructural detailing.

The hardest part of any mechanism was figuring out how to lay its interior out. She picked that process up naturally, so the rest came easy.

This was going to be a long night… But with Kit undoubtedly on her way down due to the storm, it wasn't going to be a lonely one.

And against Arex's own thoughts, she silently admitted to herself of something.

She was actually starting to crave Kitsuki's company.

Even though it was silent.

She may not have a voice, but somehow, she still managed to express herself in full with expression and sign language alone.

That was more than she could say about most other people.

It was already late, nearing midnight actually, so Arex knew Kit was probably lying in bed right now. But she never fell asleep until Arex was there too, so the girl knew Kitsuki saw her message and was on her way.

It was just a matter of a few minutes now as she trekked across campus.

Hopefully she'd be alright. It was late, so she wouldn't run into anyone.

Despite that, Arex couldn't help but open her scroll and open her interior map, pinging for her partner's scroll signature as she updated the white fox's location.

The small dot was moving slowly, just leaving the dorm building.

 _She was probably already on her way._ Arex smiled, moving her attention back over to the parts she was working on as she glanced back to her scroll every now and then.

That attention only deviated when the forge room doors slid open in the background ahead of her with a hydraulic grinding, a curious gaze turning up as soon as a few pieces were in place to see who just walked in.

The open bulkhead doors to the forge allowed the room to depressurize, the phoenix feeling the temperature drift through to the hallway behind the arrival.

Standing in the middle of the entrance, panting heavily and dripping with water… was Ray.

She watched the boy stomp into the room, his clothes clinging to his skin and completely soaked through as he swiped his scroll against the interior terminal to shut the door.

After it closed, he threw his messenger bag toward the nearest workbench and proceeded to remove his jacket and beanie.

She looked away at that point, distractedly going back to her work as she partially paid attention to what he was doing. Was he… going to work on his weapon again?

Her ears picked up a crystalline whine, slowly building up as she glanced over to see Ray illuminated in a bright violet light, then without warning, the light dispersed, sending water droplets clinging to him across the forge.

A couple droplets struck the ground near her station to the right of him, darkening a few stray spots into its surface.

But despite that, she looked back over and noticed his clothes and hair were still soaked.

Ray approached the nearest forge and opened the protective barrier door, revealing the smoldering flames inside, shuddering as the heat hit him.

He took a stool from underneath the worktable his bag rested beside and dragged it toward the open forge before sitting down with a drawn out sigh.

Looks like the rain really picked up.

Hopefully Kit used the covered paths on her way down.

The phoenix went back to her work, slipping a quick gaze to her scroll to see Kitsuki taking the paths she was hoping she'd be taking. And from the looks of it, she hadn't been stopped yet.

Which meant no encounters.

That was good, at least.

Arex preferred it that way, especially after Anoel told her about the almost daily harassments she had to suffer through during daily classes. That ultimately brought her to stay in the room as much as possible, or just leave campus at times.

She didn't seem to change those habits until Arex came along, and after a little while, the kitsune was spending any time outside of those classes with the phoenix herself.

Whenever she was free… which, honestly, was most of the time, she was with _her_.

As the girl worked though, a second set of footsteps suddenly caught her attention from inside the forge room itself.

She quickly glanced up and noticed Ray still staring intently into the fire about a foot away from his front, leaning toward the open flames as he sat on his stool, resting his elbows against his knees.

Her eyes then switched back to her scroll, noticing Kit had just reached the forge building.

Which… left someone else inside it? She didn't see anyone else enter, and she's been here already for a couple hours.

Her mind quickly drew back to the entrance as the heavy, scorched doors slid open, a tired golden-orange gaze drifting into the room from a height just a few inches shorter than herself.

Drowsily drooped fox ears lay back on her white head, only slightly damp as that gaze sifted through the room and finally fell silently on Arex on the rightmost forge of the central column.

But that gaze quickly drifted back left as she saw someone else staring at her.

Maybe it was because she was carrying around a white, fluffy blanket, and was currently standing in her pajamas.

Which was just her light thin sweater overtop her white panties.

Ray sat up as his brow raised in confusion, giving Kitsuki a once over, mouthing something she managed to read.

But it was way too vulgar to repeat to herself, even if it matched his shock perfectly.

Her gaze soon tilted as she saw him leaning toward the forge's open flames, still apparently damp as her own tails dripped water behind her.

She… thought she saw something running down his spine. They almost looked like circular black studs, segmented down his back and showing only faintly through his soaked, clinging shirt.

But her view of it went away as he turned toward her.

The mute glanced back to Arex, Ray's gaze following her line of sight before he went rigid and swore again.

"Fuck."

Kit seemed to ignore his one-word monologue, padding into the room in her damp white boots as her tails trailed behind her, the doors sealing shut as she made her way tiredly to her partner.

"Cold?" Arex asked, the two of them not paying attention to a momentary shuffling coming from where Ray was sitting… or the tipping of his stool…

Which soon crashed to the ground with a solid, echoing thud as he stood and backed away, keeping alarmed and cautious eyes on them at their station.

The mute kitsune silently nodded to Arex, her small form slumping onto a stool as she draped her blanket onto the other one, closer to the forge.

Keeping it close to the heat to dry off.

She folded her petite arms on the workstation before her and rested her head on them, fox ears staying drooped on her head as she closed her eyes.

Arex couldn't help but smile at the sight as she touched the workstation, filtering a warm path of heat from her affinity through it and over Kitsuki's body, a small shuddered breath leaving the girl's lips as she sunk more comfortably into her arms.

The forger then glanced back up to where Ray was, seeing his station perfectly repositioned to make it appear no one had been there.

Then after a moment… a new forge started up out of sight of her.

"Okay…?" the girl quietly whispered, going back to her work now that Kit was steadily drying and dozing off at her station.

Arex still never knew exactly what Anoel did to Ray after she left his dorm room. Part of her wanted to know… but the other part of her screamed at her not to ask.

She just… decided not to press the issue. Whatever happened was for her sake, or so Anoel said.

It looked like it really left its mark on Ray, though.

She would've kept working too, if she didn't jump at hearing a sudden crash coming from the storeroom and the thudding of wood against something hard.

Almost as if something shattered and a collection of metals just cascaded to the ground.

Arex quickly turned her gaze to Kit, only to see her still resting her head on her workstation, ears perked toward the noise but her eyes only partially open toward the source of the ruckus.

Someone else was _definitely_ in here.

As the phoenix stared toward the door to the storeroom, a shuffling from inside quietly started to filter through before someone's sing-songy voice sounded out in a stifled echo from deep inside it.

Wait, she recognized that-

The storeroom door suddenly swung open with a solid kick, the sound ripping out into the rest of the quiet forge area as Dante stepped out with a collection of materials held in a large, towering pile in his arms.

"What's this? What's this? There's color everywhere!" Dante's voice suddenly broke out across the now silent room, tuned to only the steps of his feet as he made his way toward the few steps that led him down to the main floor, "What's this? There's something in the air!"

It was almost amusing. He was going strong and seemed to be pretty on-key with several of his notes, but it was at least a little funny.

Arex smiled lightly, despite having no idea what he was singing, as he made his way to the steps.

"What's this? I can't believe my eyes, I must be dreaming, Wake up, Dante, this isn't fair  
What's thi-?!"

Flashing yellow eyes suddenly widened as Dante stepped forward onto a ground that wasn't there and let out a piercing yelp and a quick "Oh shi-" before completely tipping forward and tripping down the stairs.

Everything he was carrying suddenly flipped comically into the air, his body crumpling and thumping harshly down the stairs as his back eventually flopped flatly onto the ground.

Somewhere in there, Arex heard the shutter of a camera and watched a white flash saturate the scene right before he hit the ground.

Dante's eyes were still wide as he muttered something else… right before all the metals, tools, and materials came crashing back down right on top of him, forcing a hard wince out of Arex as she watched the whole thing unfold.

"Erm… are you… alright?" she asked, eyeing the pile of heavy rubble crushing him.

She got no response… in fact, the entire stack grew motionless.

The phoenix glanced to her partner, surprised to see her shoulders shaking and her hands covering her mouth, eyes filled with amusement.

" _He's perfectly fine,"_ she managed to sign with shaking fingers, her slim frame still racked from her silent laughing as she smiled widely.

The reaction brought a smile to Arex's own lips as she breathed out in relief, turning her eyes back to the motionless heap of lifelessness settled on the floor of the forge room.

Kitsuki noiselessly stood and walked over to the pile, crouching down where Dante's head was partially sticking out before lightly poking his cheek.

He seemed to just be staring up in a distant, pondering gaze.

"Is he dead?" Ray called out, stepping around from where his new station was, his voice more clearly amused and hopeful than concerned as he pocketed his scroll.

Kitsuki just kept quietly staring as she sat herself down on the ground, tails sweeping back and forth against the floor behind her as she shook her head no in response and waited.

She was waiting for him to register her poke.

"I guess not…" Ray murmured as he crouched down beside her, "But we can drop more stuff on top of him just to make sure."

As he spoke, he dropped a titanium ingot he picked up from the floor into the center of the pile, causing a couple loose pieces to shift.

But other than that… it remained lifeless and unresponsive.

Kit poked him again, wondering if he was just thinking before the teen suddenly shot up, snapping into a sitting position and firing some of the debris on top of him into the far wall.

"My digital watch processes information faster than you, Dante," Ray deadpanned, standing back up as the white-haired teen looked around.

"Please tell me nobody kissed me," he muttered.

"Not in this fucking lifetime."

"Good. And that wasn't me processing information from falling and stuff. I just… got into the mood of thinking of other things for a minute. Like the meaning of life. Why do we wear two socks and not three? And how come graham crackers are more addicting than drugs? Especially the cinnamon flavored ones. You know, the important stuff."

That last part sparked a little interest in Kit's eyes.

"42, convenience, and additives," Ray listed off evenly.

"Whelp…" Dante looked around him and his pile, "This is a downright mess now."

" _You're bleeding,_ " Kit signed, shifting up onto her knees to lean behind him and find a deep cut in the back of his head.

"He heals," Arex informed, catching her partner's focused attention and getting her to sit back on her ankles with a nod.

And just like that, the bleeding had long since stopped and the wound no longer present.

"Wow, _magic…_ " Ray commented sarcastically, his voice dead.

Kitsuki smiled amusedly at Ray's response to Dante's hidden ability, reaching down to try to pick up one of the ingots on the ground.

Well… 'try' being the keyword there.

It was a big ingot.

Sort of…

Ray watched her for a few moments as she tried to tip the object up to get her fingers under it, waiting to see if she'd actually do it, before calmly breathing out and bending down to touch the ground.

Vibrant purple hardlight branched out into the ground before sweeping beneath the objects littering the ground, moving all of them and restacking them into a neat pile back in Dante's lap.

Leaving the one Kit was trying so hard to pick up.

"You can do it. Any day now. Sometime this century would be nice too…" Ray said, standing back up as the girl struggled.

"And what about the ones across the room?" Dante asked.

Ray waved the question off, seeing as a couple were deeply embedded in the stone of the eastward wall, "Not my problem."

"Maybe I should go find a glass of _water_ …" Dante smiled, "I'm awfully thirsty. Like… really _really_ thirsty."

Ray only rolled his eyes in slight annoyance to that.

Was he trying to say something targeting?

Kit silently pointed up toward the sky after the teen said that, the cascade of pelting water against the forge's exterior walls suddenly filtering in again.

"Just kidding, I was only messing with him," Dante continued, noticing the small gesture, "He likes other drinks besides water since he doesn't like how it tastes. He's very ashamed of it."

It sounded like an inside joke.

The kitsune mouthed a quick 'oh', her tails settling back down behind her and ceasing their movement.

"Says the one who crashed and burned during a musical solo."

"That last step before taking my oh so glorious swan dive was sort of loose, okay?"

"The last _non-existent_ step was loose? If you say so."

"Walking on air's pretty tough. It takes a few tries," Arex commented from behind, a small flutter of amusement in her voice before she switched her focus from the others back to her project.

Well, things certainly got a lot more lively.

And with Kit giving up on lifting that one decently sized ingot, she backed away and let Ray or Dante deal with it as she scanned Dante for a moment now that he's sat up.

She smelled cinnamon on him, so her golden-orange eyes were sifting for any kind of box he may have had.

She wanted graham crackers…

"Hungry?" Dante asked, glancing over to meet her gaze, "Or just wanting to satiate your gluttonous craving for cinnamon?"

Kit silently nodded to both with a meek smile.

"Here then. Have the whole box if you'd like," he said, reaching into the pile and grabbing a box of unopened, cinnamon graham crackers.

With a cautious glance and a small, tiny sniff to make sure the box had nothing wrong with it, Kit lightly took the snack from Dante's hands and wandered back to Arex's station, getting a small roll of the eyes from her partner.

Ray lightly tapped his purple canvas shoe, still damp from the rain, against the hard floor of the forge, sending shimmering hardlight across its surface and underneath the ingot Kitsuki gave up on.

With almost pinpoint accuracy, the hardlight flicked the ingot into the air, performing a full front flip and landing at the top of the neat pile he had constructed.

"Nice one, tinman," Dante commented, standing back to his feet and holding the pile of towering materials atop his left hand for a moment as he looked around for a free forge, "Where are you set up?"

"The one with the stool," Ray replied, gesturing to the other side of the room, "away from danger."

"Awe, you took the one I wanted," Dante said, heading off toward the back side of the forge, between Arex's and Ray's, "Wait… Danger?"

From the entrance, Arex's station was alone on the right-most side of the room, closest to one of the two storerooms.

Ray's was furthest left, closest to the only other storeroom. Dante was eyeing the one at the back of the cylindrical layout of the room, furthest from the entry door.

Overall, nobody could see each other's workstations once they were all set up.

"What'd you mean by 'danger'?" Dante asked, "Did you do something you shouldn't have? Prank gone wrong?"

"No comment." Ray placed his hands inside his jean pockets and walked back toward his workstation.

"Now now, don't be shy," Dante spoke after him, eyeing Ray rather curiously, "Share with the class today."

"No."

"Spoilsport…" the immortal replied with a sigh before taking a glance toward Arex, "So, what'd he do?"

Arex could only shrug, only partially paying attention to the only conversation taking place inside the room as she finished the final few minuscule pieces to her current part.

With a quick slide, she pulled up the mapping of the next one and started work on another set of recently forged segments.

"Something happened between him and my sister. I didn't ask for the details," Arex replied absently, glancing over to Kit for a moment to see the fox's gaze watching her work.

A single half of a graham cracker lay lightly clasped between her lips as she nibbled on its corner.

Dante remained still for a few moments before chortling and breaking out into laughter, kicking his feet slightly.

"That was your first mistake, buddy. I'm actually surprised and amused."

Ray didn't respond.

"Lighten up," Dante said with a tilt of his head, shrugging his shoulders before heading off now too, "The fact you're here, breathing and with all your limbs, means she only roughed you up a bit. Maybe."

Arex glanced up to see Dante send the beanie-wearing teen a coy smile before moving out of sight.

"Still, I can pretty much imagine your pants being a few pounds heavier after having a 'talk' with her," his voice continued, "I get the feeling she can be pretty convincing when she's scary."

The phoenix could only shake her head at that as she kept working, the two boys disappearing from her peripherals entirely now as they headed off to work on their own projects.

They had no idea…

But after a moment, she glanced up to see Kit clamping a half-eaten cracker in her mouth trying to sign something.

" _How protective can Anoel be?"_

A light sigh left Arex's lips as she looked back down to her tools, "Very."

* * *

 **Wrote this during a storm with the power flickering on and off…**

 **How ironic XD.**

 **Google Docs was even disconnecting and reconnecting as I wrote the first scene with HydraFlow for his character. That made for an interesting hour or so... sorta.**

 **In any case, I'll be finishing off this forge scene next chapter then I'll go back to Niro (this was also one of the few times the three of us were in the same document (andy, hydra, and I) to write out an interactive scene).**

 **He really needs to stop dragging storms back to Beacon.**

 **Kit's already fretting enough there as it is.**

 **For now,** _ **Favorite**_ **and** _ **Follow**_ **.**

 **I look forward to seeing** _ **REVIEWS**_ **for this. You'll be introduced to a LOT of concepts of mine. Feel free to give me your thoughts.**

 **Cya XP**


	33. KitKat

Rogue Huntsman

KitKat

«»

Kit was silently watching Arex work on another seemingly tedious task, working her heart out on this project of hers as she pressed her cheek into the support of her palm.

Delicate fingers lightly danced and tapped against her pale cheek as she swished her tails through the warm air, long-since dried and tempted to sleep.

But after a certain threshold, she found herself more bored than tired.

"You know… you can wander around if you'd like. If you can't sleep," Arex lightly commented, her narrow focus pinpointed on her hands as she worked with a couple particularly small and delicate pieces.

" _You sure?"_ Kit asked, getting a distracted nod in return.

With a quick hop, the fox dropped to her feet, sitting on the floor for a moment to slip back on her boots and tie them. Once they were snug, she pushed herself to her feet with a quiet swish of her tails and turned to look in the directions of the lights emanating from the other stations across the room.

A muffled howl of wind whistled in from above, but she ignored it for now as she let her fox ears focus on the noise coming from the opposite forge.

She quietly made her way around, taking the path closer to the entrance as she circled her way to the opposite side of the room, finding Ray's figure hazily shown in the light of his burning furnace.

Ray was working on his right gauntlet, occasionally pulling out a tool from his messenger bag Kitsuki didn't recognize and tinkering with its internal components.

Low humming sounds softly drifted from the aluminum gauntlet as Ray worked, occasionally emitting a bright purple light before dulling back down again.

He hadn't seen her yet.

The fox's soft gaze fell back on the messenger bag leaning against his workstation to the left of him, a sweet scent filtering out of it as she tilted her head curiously.

With a silent activation of her Semblance, she noiselessly made her way forward and kept a careful gaze on where Ray's attention was focused, crouching down in front of his bag unnoticed for now as she wondered if he'd turn around.

After a few moments… she deftly tipped it her way and checked inside, gaze sifting around its simple interior before finding an inside pocket with what she was after.

Her small tongue poked out the corner of her mouth as she reached in with a focused gaze, opening the pocket on the inside before her shining eyes widened in disbelief.

He had so many…

Careful fingers were hesitant now as she roamed her gaze over what was in the bag, briefly looking back to Ray for a moment to make sure he was still working.

With that reassurance, she looked back to the bag, only catching a faint purple light suddenly illuminating from the spine of Ray's back as she reached into the bag again and plucked out two KitKat candy bars.

Ray ceased working on his gauntlet, dropping the tool he held in his right hand as he looked up slightly.

"The hell?" he questioned, sweeping his gaze across the room.

The sudden voice caused the kitsune to freeze completely, the candy bars still held in her delicate grasp as her gaze snapped up to a set of glowing amethyst orbs staring at her.

Her hands were already off the bag and it was back to leaning perfectly against his workstation the way he left it.

 _C-can he…_ She double checked that her Semblance was activated, and it was, so she leaned momentarily over to the side…

Only to watch his eyes follow her.

 _Erm…_ A tiny wave was all she could muster right now, hiding the candy out of sight.

"If you're wondering if I can see you, kitsune, the answer is yes," Ray spoke lowly, "your Semblance is useful on people, but it doesn't seem effective on machines, correct?"

The small girl stood now that she knew he spotted her, keeping what she took behind her for now as his gaze continued to track her movements.

But… it was almost like he wasn't looking into her eyes as a person, but as a location. He just _knew_ she was there, it didn't seem like he was taking in her details at all.

She dropped her Semblance after that, then gave him a small nod to his question.

It only worked on things that could perceive her, not digitally read her.

"Perhaps the next time you decide you want something, you should probably _ask_ the person first."

She… wasn't used to asking. So with a guilty look in her eyes, she slowly placed both of the KitKats she took onto his workstation.

"I didn't say you couldn't have them. If you're hungry, just take them, not like I'm in short supply or anything," Ray shrugged, "I have other candy in there too."

Wait… he wasn't in short supply? Kit's never met anyone on the streets before who didn't value candy at the highest percentile of anything you could possibly steal for food…

And he had more than enough to just give away?

She silently gulped and glanced back to the candy, then back to him with a questioning, bewildered look.

Was he serious?

"What are you waiting for? Christmas? Take the chocolate already. Then go bother Dante, I'm sure he _loves_ the attention."

Kit gave a small, apprehensive nod after a few more seconds of staring, silently taking the two bars back into her grasp as she took a step away.

She glanced back real quick, just to make sure this was really okay… before she silently walked back the way she came and reappeared at Arex's station.

A curious gaze soon fell on her own before the kitsune slid one of her bars across the workstation, something for Arex to snack on as she quietly opened her own.

"Oh? Where'd you get a candy bar in here…?" Arex asked, sitting back on her stool as she opened her own.

Part of her wondering how Kit knew she was getting hungry for something sweet.

The kitsune quickly pointed to the opposite side of the room, getting another questioning glance from Arex after the phoenix followed her directions.

"That was nice of him."

Kit smiled and nodded, giving a small, meek shrug.

It was something like that…

With the KitKat opened and still half-wrapped in one hand, Kitsuki pulled out her scroll and started typing.

" _I tried using my Semblance on him,"_ she wrote out into her notes section, then frowned slightly, _"It didn't work."_

Arex's look turned worried for a moment before catching Kit's rising gaze, "Was he mad?"

" _Sort of?"_ Kitsuki bit her lip and looked back toward his station, _"I couldn't tell. He basically told me to ask before taking then let me have it."_

The small girl shrunk in her seat as she pouted, typing her next phrase out quickly.

" _He told me off while doing all that though…"_

"That…" Arex nodded slowly, the worry in her eyes falling away as she breathed out softly, "sounds like something he'd do, actually."

" _Niro told me my Semblance wouldn't work on everybody. I didn't expect Ray to be someone on that list,"_ Kit explained silently, refraining from taking a bite from her candy bar yet.

Arex was doing the same, just wanting to hear Kit out for now as she paused her work.

"He's the kind of guy to have tech hiding in all his pockets. He may have had digital sensors that could've picked you up," Arex pointed out, setting down her tool for now as she rested her arms on the workstation's surface, "Where was the candy?"

" _In his bag,"_ Kit replied, meeting Arex's gaze again before remembering something, _"There were some lights that glowed running down his spine, right before he turned to look at me."_

"Those were probably what tipped him off then…" Arex sighed, softening her gaze as she tilted her head, a few questions in her mind popping up for now but she brushed them aside in favor of Kit, "Be more careful with who you use your Semblance on. They may not all be so dismissive."

Kitsuki quickly nodded to that, almost feeling like a kid being chastised before Arex lightly smiled.

"That being said, go try to use it on Dante. I wonder if he can see you too."

Golden-orange eyes widened for a moment before the silent girl nodded in affirmation, _"And if he does?"_

"I'm sure he'll give you something too. Anoel says he's a sucker for cute things," the phoenix mentioned with a light blush.

" _You think I'm cute?"_

"N-no, I mean," Arex blinked hard as Kit leaned over, the fox following her gaze as Arex tried to avert it, "Y-yes. I-I… think you're cute."

Kit's smile couldn't have been wider as she nodded happily and hopped off her stool again, picking back up her candy bar to eat on the go as she went off to harass Dante.

Maybe he was singing again.

This walk was only half the distance, so she took it slower to eat slightly into her KitKat as she made her way around and spotted the white-haired teen working at his own forge.

His method of working was… different.

He sat on a wheeled stool, spinning around in it as he held what seemed to be a handle in his right hand and a cylindrical tool in his left that crackled with white sparks when touching the handle.

Yup… two fox ears twitched slightly as she caught his voice in the air, slowing her pace slightly to make sure she wasn't interrupting anything.

Dante was singing another song.

"You know that I can't smile without you, can't smile without you." A quick triple twirl of his tool between his fingers was seen before sparks ignited when the tip made contact with the handle, "I can't laugh and I can't sing. I'm finding it hard to do anything."

He then leaned back fully until he was completely horizontal on the stool, still spinning while crossing a leg over his knee.

"You see I feel sad, when you're sad. I feel glad, when you're glad. If you, only knew, what I'm going through..."

He then quickly sat back up straight and raised the handle and tool overhead, "I can't just smile without you!"

The rest he hummed to himself while continuing his spin.

Wasn't he getting… dizzy? Kitsuki tilted her head as she watched the display unfold, smiling lightly as she took another small bite of her candy bar.

It's almost been a full year since she's had any.

After a few more moments of him singing and spinning, she activated her Semblance to see if Dante could see through it too.

She quietly made her way forward, her KitKat still in her hand as she maneuvered around his station unnoticed, finding a small bag at the end of it out of sight of his spinning chair as she crouched down and checked inside.

He had three more boxes of graham crackers… She finished the one he gave her an hour ago.

And with Arex getting hungry now too, she wondered if it was alright if she took another to share.

She kept herself from touching the bag yet, glancing around the end of the workstation and to where the sound of Dante's spinning stool could be heard…

Only to see it emptily spinning, Dante completely gone from it.

Golden-orange eyes widened as she blinked silently, watching it turn for another rotation before peering over the top of the station, finding the area in front of his forge empty too.

He wasn't there either.

She bit her lip as she crouched down again, looking down to the bag… then drifting her gaze to the left, a silent yelp tearing out of her throat as she jumped at a closely staring pair of bright sky blue eyes.

The kitsune's tails went rigid as she fell back on her butt, staring at Dante in alarm as he seemed to be cupping his hands over his eyes like binoculars.

 _W-when did he…_

"Good evening."

Kit clutched her KitKat tightly as her heart was racing, blinking silently as she supported herself on her one free hand and dropped her Semblance.

It definitely didn't work on him.

"The little kitsune has taken note of the hunter, possibly fearing for the chocolatey and cinnamony goodness in her hands. And possibly soul," he said, hands still in place over his eyes.

The small, awkward gleam in Kitsuki's eyes reflected back at Dante in a narrowing, confused gaze before the kitsune took a silent breath to calm down.

Kit quietly pulled her knees in a little as she curled her tails around her legs, softly wrapping her lower half in a white, fluffy embrace as she pouted.

Did he have to scare her like that?

"Sorry sorry, I couldn't help my childish tendency right there to scare you a bit. The temptation was too strong to resist," he said, offering her a hand.

She didn't wanna take it. Not yet, anyway.

Remembering he could sign, she held her candy bar with her mouth for a moment as she flashed him a few words.

" _Please don't scare me like that again."_

"Again, very sorry," he said, slamming his head into the floor in an apologetic bow, "I will compensate with my life if you see fit."

Kit blinked silently for a few solid seconds, actually considering what she could do with that… before shaking her head, fox ears finally rising from their folded back states.

" _Graham crackers,"_ she signed simply, then pointed to his bag.

"Understood your majesty," Dante replied respectfully.

He then quickly reached inside his bag and pulled out four more boxes of graham crackers, offering them to her with a bow as if she were a queen.

Kit's tails softly unraveled from her legs, an unsure look falling over her face again before she giggled lightly.

She kind of liked being pampered.

But… she reached a slim hand forward and plucked only one of the boxes from Dante's hands, setting that beside her as she stuck her KitKat back into her mouth to sign again.

" _I just wanted one."_

"Grievance compensation is included. Besides, I have a whole cupboard of them back in our room that's restocked every week. So it's fine."

Kit bit her lip, wondering how anyone could even have such a large stock… or even needed one.

Were they both rich?

" _Thank you…"_ she signed, then paused for a moment before continuing, _"It's just for tonight. Arex looked like she was getting hungry, so I started looking around for something we could share."_

She finally took the KitKat back out of her mouth with a small bite taken out of it, partially melted now but she quickly licked the residual chocolate from her lips.

"Well, for me personally those function really well as a late night snack and fill up someone really well. Then again… I don't get hungry really so I wouldn't entirely know."

Kit nodded. Right, Inuba's food was the only food he ate… aside from these graham crackers. And he already mentioned something before about how he didn't need food to sustain his body.

Either way, she picked up her new box of crackers and gave him a grateful smile, lightly flicking her bundle of tails behind her and perking her ears to show her thanks.

"Aww~ So cute… You're just like my partner when she's in a good mood."

Kitsuki smiled in return to the comment, her tails swaying a little more lively now as she tilted her gaze at him, wondering if his partner wasn't always in a good mood.

Was she often in a bad mood…?

"Ah, don't get me wrong or anything. She's pretty much in a good mood always. Except when I do something naughty. Then she pinches my cheeks, which kinda hurts. But then she's in a good mood again right after."

It was almost like Arex… only the phoenix wasn't so stern. She silently nodded in understanding, knowing where Dante was coming from as she related to his words.

But she finally stood up, brushing off her bare legs and checking behind her tails to see if anything was stuck to her.

Her state of attire was completely out of her mind right now due to how late it was, so she didn't even stop to wonder if he caught a glimpse of anything.

"Your Semblance is pretty interesting. First variation of yours I've seen of its type with a singular effect. Very useful. And better compared to the rest I've seen. Train harder and you'll be even more amazing in time."

 _Really?_ Kitsuki wondered, tilting her head the other way as she let a small wondrous gaze filter into her irises.

Were there… others like her? She wasn't sure if her Semblance stemmed from her as a person, or her as a race.

Did he know anything?

She set her things back down, leaving them on his workstation and placing her KitKat on top of her new box in order to reply.

" _It's not really that amazing. It didn't even work on you."_ Kit frowned a little, but she appreciated what he said about it.

Unfortunately… it was only always going to be a reminder of the feelings that ripped through her that night.

When it unlocked.

"Now now, replace that frown with a smile. It is actually amazing. And can be so much more. It did work on me at first… but... To be perfectly honest, I'm practically what's considered a freak of nature, so a lot of things won't work on me all too well."

So, it did work on him, for a moment. But that didn't seem to last. _"Does that mean you're not ticklish?"_

"N-No! Definitely not!" he replied rather suspiciously, earning a quizzical look from her.

He was totally ticklish.

She was too.

" _Okay. Well… you don't seem like a freak to me."_ Not as much as she was, anyway. Or at least what she'd been called all her life now.

She was used to being called a freak or lab rat.

"That's sweet of you. But some others would strongly challenge you on that. They would probably lose to you in the face of your fluffy might."

His words brought a small, tiny chuckle out of her, shaking her head at that but frowning slightly at how others would see him as a freak of nature.

" _I'll keep training it,"_ she signed reassuringly, _"Do you think it'll eventually work on you some day?"_

"It could very likely be the case. There's… a constant stream of unknown's out there. Anything could change just like that," he said, snapping his fingers quickly, "Whether or not the changes are good is up to you entirely. In short, I believe that it could very likely work."

" _I'll… keep that in mind,"_ Kit replied, delicate brow furrowing for a moment before she took up her sweets and gave him another thankful smile.

This time for the advice.

She doubted it'd work on him though, even if she trained it.

"Hey, don't doubt yourself ever. I have this funny thing about how I see people. Looking at you, you definitely are strong. And you'll be even stronger as time goes by. So, in short, trust yourself and your feelings. You'll go many a place."

Funny… she was never once strong in her life. She'd always been too weak to do anything to help herself, or even help anyone around her.

But… maybe she could just believe him for now, just this once.

Just to humor him.

She calmly nodded her head to what he said to show that she took in his words.

"And one more thing. Don't let anyone bring you down. Especially because you're a cute and fluffy kitsune. Honestly, I can't even imagine how someone could be so mean to someone so adorable…"

Kitsuki grimaced slightly when he mentioned that, having been hoping she could've left without it being brought up.

"I've noticed Cardin being not so nice to a lot of other students recently. Especially towards students that are faunus. So… if he's being a real jerk to you or anything, just call over your faithful manservant Dante to take care of him. I'll be over real quick to sort him out."

He wasn't the only one who's told her the same exact thing… But she couldn't have him stepping in for her.

Yang does it enough already, and that was without her permission.

In the end, she was still the one who was weak… calling on help from anyone who was stronger than herself.

Or even braver than herself.

"There's no shame in it really. Even I need help myself now and then."

Still… she'd keep what he said in mind…

But Niro's words still echoed in her head from that one time on the roof. He was the only one to ever tell her something different than everybody seemed content to say.

It was her problem, and she had the ability to put a stop to it. She just needed to stop closing in on herself and actually do it.

At the same time, it was still so hard to do…

"Or you could deal with them yourself. That's also okay, even if people say otherwise."

Kit silently nodded, clasping her box beneath her chin to hold it in place before sticking her KitKat in her mouth to make a quick response.

" _Thank you… for the offer. I'll keep that in mind too."_

"Alrighty then. May I?" he asked, motioning his hand to give her a head rub.

Kit glanced up for a moment before nodding fervently, ears fluttering for a moment in preparation for any kind of touch.

Head pets were her favorite, especially from Arex.

Dante reached forward and gently rested his hand on her head, watching her for a moment as she closed her eyes and brushed the sides of his hand with her ears.

He couldn't stop the small smile from splaying across his lips as he gave the hair between her ears a soft rub, sliding his fingers over as well to give the bases of her ears a brief scratch before pulling back.

"Aha, you're too cute and fluffy. I might actually die."

Kit's eyes quietly opened back up as she flicked one of her ears, _"Don't die. Inuba needs you."_

His eyes widened momentarily when she said that. But then his gaze softened as he rubbed the back of his neck.

"You're right. She'd be pretty upset with me if that happened."

The kitsune nodded with a proud affirmation, as if her point was proven right then and there, _"So don't die."_

She caught his gaze one more time before pulling her treat back out of her mouth and heading off, box in her other hand.

He seemed nice… playful too.

But her gaze drifted to the ground as she walked back to Arex, her tails stilling for a moment as she furrowed her brow.

With a quick glance over her shoulder, she saw him pull out his own box of graham crackers before going back to work.

When he pet her and she asked him that last question… she could've sworn she felt a small, faint twinge of pain in that moment.

The thing was…

It wasn't her own.

* * *

Kit tucked her cheek into the palm of her hand as she sat in the furthest corner of the room. The only people currently around her were the only present members of her team.

Arex sat to her immediate left, sketching something in her notebook as she waited for class to start. Anoel sat one more seat down, next to Arex, leaning back with her eyes on her black scroll.

Niro was out doing something again.

She didn't ask what.

"Hey there. How's the day been so far?"

Golden-orange eyes glanced up for a moment as a single ear twitched, noticing Dante standing in the row in front of her own with his team.

She just gave a tired shrug. More sleep would've been nice.

"Still a bit tired I see. That's alright," he continued, the rest of his team sliding into the bench he stood in as they began getting out their things.

The class seemed to be filling up quickly now as well, which meant it'd be starting soon.

Kitsuki just let her cheek lean further into her palm before glancing over to Arex's notebook, away from Dante as she saw her sketching out the interior components of what looked like a retractable longbow.

She never really did take a break from conceptualizing new things… did she…?

"No, I'm _busy_ Scarlet…" a hushed baritone voice uttered two rows ahead.

And that'd be Ray…

Kit glanced over to see where his team sat, noticing he'd pushed himself into the wall of his bench as he sat boredly in his seat. Scarlet, or who she'd assumed to be Scarlet, sat to his free side, playing with the crimson hair pulled over her left shoulder.

It seemed they were all sitting on the right side of the room today. For some reason.

The rest of his team didn't look very… approachable. One had his hood up far enough to the point she had no way of seeing his face, even when he turned his head, and the other sat with a tan cowboy hat nestled onto his head.

What was with the hats…?

The kitsune glanced over to see Anoel's black cowboy hat bobbing up and down lightly to music she could faintly hear, her eyes reading through a thread of messages on her scroll that kept updating live before her.

Too many hats.

How were those kinds of hats even comfortable? The girl's ears went flat on her head as she thought about it.

Golden-orange eyes soon turned back to Arex for a moment, envisioning her in a cowboy hat now as well.

Only for that gaze to catch Anoel suddenly flicking the rim of her hat up to loosen it, then flipped it swiftly off of her head and onto her sister's, not even looking away from her scroll.

Did she… know?

Arex felt the hat fit over her head, flinching slightly as it happened, but her questioning gaze met nothing in return as she glanced to Ano at her side.

Completely ignored.

Arex looked really good in the hat.

Kit's eyes struggled to look away from her partner at the sound of a heavier set of footsteps tapping into the room. The rest of the students continued their chatter as the professor walked in.

He was tall… really tall compared to her… But probably just tall compared to everyone else. At least he looked like a professor though.

He had a dark blue collared dress shirt on, the lapels of the collar longer than what she'd seen from the other professors.

Black trousers fitted his legs, the girl's eyes noticing he wore black dress shoes just beneath them with a white belt holding everything up. A glint of light silently glimpsed over his silver buckle as she turned her eyes up to grimace slightly.

He was wearing a cowboy hat too…

Arex looked better.

He may have looked good, but Arex looked better.

Niro too.

The kitsune didn't like the white band circling around the crown of the professor's black hat, encasing slightly curly, shoulder length black hair just beneath. Her gaze shied away as soon as she saw his dark blue eyes take in the class in front of him, irises situated behind rectangular-shaped glasses.

He seemed to also be the only professor with facial hair… Her eyes took in a thin, cleanly cut mustache that sat nicely away from a thin, neatly trimmed beard running along his jawline.

He kind of looked like a dressy cowboy, in a way. But she also wasn't quite set on his hat actually being a cowboy hat at all.

She just didn't know any other way to call a hat like that.

"Good morning everyone," he spoke in a collected, even voice with a mild reverberation, "My name is professor Dravus Gladian, and I will be your professor for Advanced Aura Integration."

The class's chatter died down once he started talking. It was a hard voice to miss.

"Here in this class, I'll be teaching you how to directly combat other Aura-using combatants that make use of advanced Aura and other magic-related abilities, as well as furthering the abilities you yourself possess in your personal arsenal."

One of Kit's fox ears twitched slightly at the sound of someone groaning nearby, then flinching soon after at the harsh sound of something hard slamming heavily into a wooden desk.

Was that… Ray?

"You won't only learn about what exactly is out there and what people might use against you, but how to deal with them. And to this effect, we'll also be performing direct demonstrations of how to combat against these varying different abilities. Out in the field."

Oh.

So this class was held in tandem with Goodwitch's? Kit realized they'd be learning a curriculum that fell closely to what Glynda was doing with them, only she focused more on individual strengths and weaknesses than this.

Were they going to fight in here too, though? Was that why they were allowed to arrive in their normal clothes and not the uniforms?

"Unfortunately, you may not always be able to rely on just your weapon _or_ weapons. Hence why it is important to harness and improve your Aura-related capabilities and understand what it is you're up against when facing another combatant. After all… it isn't JUST the Grimm we have to be worried about out in the world."

Glynda said that too. Or at least, that's what Anoel told her after Kit missed her first day.

"Sounds like _bullshit_ if you ask me," a deeper voice commented, "you've been here five minutes and I've already lost all interest."

"It might sound like 'bullshit' to you, Mr. Chroma, but I'd venture a guess that you would think differently if someone shrunk you down to the size of a water bottle. Or perhaps rearrange the composition of your entire bone structure to make it as brittle as cookies. Who knows? Maybe even a toad for the simple fun of it."

"Oh, _I'm sorry_ , I thought this was a huntsman training academy, not a fairytale castle."

"It's often the fairy tales and legends you should be most wary of. Out there in the world of Huntsmen and Huntresses are many unknowns and all sorts of complicated variables involved. Wouldn't you rather know how to deal with them offhand rather than scramble around for an answer?"

A few minutes in and there was already something starting up in the class… and Niro wasn't even here to start it… Kit's eyes flicked back and forth between the two, almost feeling like the professor was enjoying this as he smiled to the challenge.

Did he get this a lot?

Kit wasn't exactly a believer in magic, but she knew Affinities were one of the several unexplained pieces of their more ancient civilizations. Things were left behind over the ages.

Maybe he was one of the people who'd been picking up the pieces as the time passed.

"There are very few things that cannot be explained using science and logic, so until you show me real evidence of magic, I'll take everything you say with a pinch of salt. Starting… _now_."

It sounded like he was being sarcastic, but Kit could rarely tell with Ray.

"I'll hold off a direct demonstration for now, Mr. Chroma. But still, I suggest you keep a keen eye and pay attention. You might learn a thing or two that can save your life," the professor said, smile growing.

Ray raised his eyebrows once, "Whatever."

The professor set his bag down to the side of the desk at the center of the room and stood in front of it, hands placed on its wooden edge as he leaned forward and glanced around.

Almost as if he was studying his students.

"The world outside of the walls of the Kingdoms is filled with uncertainty. Not everything is clear cut to see in the light of day. And so, one the goals of this class is to make those unknowns and uncertainties as clear as can be when you're out there. That way you can be home for Sunday dinner just in time," he jokingly added, earning one or two chuckles from the students.

The tension from earlier with Ray was still lingering. Maybe Ray's opinion with this kind of subject was shared…

"So… before we dive into it today, two things you should be aware of. What you learn here in this class will in part be applied in Professor Goodwitch's combat classes. That, and every so often we will be holding joint classes together. Secondly, I will be having a Teacher Assistant, or TA for short. If I am not available before or after classes, she will be here for your convenience to ask questions or receive advice and the like."

That perked Kit's interest. He had a TA?

"That being said, Elisia, you can come in now and introduce yourself."

Apparently her interest wasn't the only one to spike, her eyes noticing Dante rigidly sitting up in his seat and staring shakily down to the door below.

Did he recognize the name?

The back door to the class slid open, and in stepped the TA dressed in the standard female Beacon Academy uniform. She was surprisingly about 5'4, two inches taller than Kit's own height with her boots on, and was between a petite and endowed figure, almost matching Dante's sibling Ciel.

But Elisia was just a bit more mature and curvier.

Along with her fair skin, the other two features that caught Kit's eye had to be her ice blue irises and chin length, light blue hair with only a few strands hanging in between her eyes…

And the two light blue rabbit ears atop her head.

She strode down the steps from the top, passing by the desk as everyone's eyes were on her with silent chatter off to the side. Though, she paid them no mind really. However, once she approached the desk Dante sat in just a bit below Kitsuki, she turned her head toward him, as if just noticing he was there and giggled slightly, waving at him subtly as she passed by.

All Dante did was chuckle nervously and awkwardly wave back, something that drew the attention of the others around him. Especially Inuba's.

When she reached the front of the class, she took a once over of everyone in the room before speaking.

"Hello everyone. My name is Elisia Fey. As you all heard, I'm professor Gladian's TA and will be here to help you when he's not around. Treat me nicely, okay?" she said with a bright smile, garnishing the attention of many of the students.

Kit didn't know what to think about this one. She seemed nice, though.

But she quickly heard Ray scoff before muttering to himself, "This class is so bad, it requires _two_ teachers. _What a surprise…_ "

"Sorry, but when you actually have something worthwhile to say, I'll maybe take it under advisement, Mr. Chroma," the TA replied, still keeping her smile about her.

"Now you know my stance on this class."

"Sure thing. Just give me a bit more motivation to try harder. Are we all caught up?" she asked the professor as she brushed Ray off.

Why was this class so cutthroat?

"Quite so now that you're here. Now then… Why don't we start today's class with a short demonstration? Elisia, why don't you pick someone to start?"

"Oh? I get to pick? Alright…"

Her head scanned the room full of students, all of whom assumed she simply did that for show since the cranky complainer would very likely be the chosen candidate for today's "demonstration".

"Let's see… How about… you."

Kit saw the TA's finger fall in her direction, her ears suddenly perking up then shying away as the majority of the class shifted their attention to the back of the room.

Golden-orange eyes quickly cast behind her, meeting the blankness of the wall at her back before turning forward again.

Her?

Kit stared back in confusion, but she soon frantically noticed that the girl's eyes weren't specifically on her… but the one just below and in front of her.

Dante.

The white-haired teen himself met the gazes of numerous people in the room as he looked around, even her own, before he shook his head slightly and let out a sigh.

He raised himself up from his desk and stumbled forward with his first step. After a moment, all he did was walk down the aisle and try to act as calm as could while approaching the center stage.

Kit watched as he eventually made it down to Elisia's side, the two standing just a short distance away from each other. Dante was still trying to keep calm and collected, but it was a strong contrast from how the TA looked.

Elisia stared back at him with a calm smile, the kitsune noticing the girl letting out a silent giggle.

"Are the both of you ready?" Professor Gladian asked.

"As ready as can be…" replied Dante softly.

"Anytime. You give us the go," Elisia said cheerily, holding her hands behind her back while playfully bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet.

Kit did that too when she was excited.

Wait, was the TA excited for this?

Kit's entire body finally managed to relax back into her chair as her ears drooped, the stress of being called upon now subtly melting away as she took in a short breath.

She felt bad for Dante, but she was also glad she didn't have to go up there.

Still, he looked really uncomfortable.

Maybe the two really had met before?

* * *

"Forgive the sudden call, Mister Ezdeil, but there was something I wished to speak to you about concerning one of your teammates."

His voice seemed to emit itself loud enough into the room to overpower the dull clicking and turning of the gears hidden in the ceiling.

How could a man even stay sane in here?

In any case, this was about someone from my team…

That wasn't much of a surprise.

They were all questionable.

Even the cute one.

"In regards to which?" I asked calmly, keeping my hands clasped together behind my back as I leveled a collected gaze at our… _headmaster_.

You know, the smart one with the stick and the caffeinated hourly drug intake.

"To answer that, I must regrettably divulge what I've been helplessly attempting to look into since initiation," Ozpin spoke with a sigh, resting his fingers on his spanning desk as he lowered his gaze.

This better not be about me.

"You're aware of the incident regarding Miss Kitsuki Aeolus's late partner, am I correct?" he asked.

"Never personally looked into it."

"But one of you has. Good. Unfortunately, my luck in this matter has been running rather… thin. It's a mystery I'd hope to solve. However, I must first apologize to you. Most people didn't realize what you did for the kitsune."

The hell was he on about…?

"I didn't do anything. If taking charge is what you were referring to, that was only because that damn bird started it."

"I am well aware of how that nevermore feather pierced your chest. But at the moment, I'm more amazed at how… intricately you mask your actions," Ozpin replied smoothly, a small, twisted smirk crossing his lips.

You think you got me figured out, old man?

Try me.

"Tell me, Mister Ezdeil," the headmaster continued, leaning away from his desk as he pulled up footage from initiation, specifically the part where I was barking orders at the nameless pitiful color-hogs in my vicinity, "Were you aware of Miss Belladonna's medical training on the field and her strange ability to keep calm and collected in a pressuring situation?"

Anyone could make that assumption. She was the only one who didn't look surprised when I yelled at them and took control.

What a little submissive puss-

"Most people marked off your deflection of her assistance as condescending and rude," Ozpin continued, showing the footage of the exact moment when I pointed out the obvious uselessness in Blake's aptitude then told her to go away, "Most people _also_ tend not to pick up on subconscious manipulation in a mentalist's words."

That was Anoel's specialty. Not mine.

"You not only motioned over to the dying kitsune on the tree line, but ensured Blake dropped all her need to assist in the battle to put her medical experience to use. In doing so, you also brought her help by pushing away Miss Yang Xiao Long alongside her."

"They were annoying," I cut in simply.

He thinks he has me figured out.

"That is how you presented the situation, yes. But that is not what _happened_ in the end. Mister Ezdeil, you saved a young girls life and proceeded to cleanse the forest of Grimm I was banking on using for future endeavors," Ozpin both praised then deadpanned.

Somehow… he did each of those in the same, indifferent voice.

"She would've been fine."

"No, she wouldn't have," Ozpin corrected, forcing me to narrow my gaze.

Maybe I wasn't giving his scrutinizing eyes of the forest enough credit.

"She was nearly dead. However, I've commended you enough. My question takes me to the root of this problem altogether. And that… brings me to wonder how Miss Aeolus got into such a state to begin with."

A question I couldn't care for. Anoel might've.

Knowing her, she had probably already been looking into it since day one.

Ozpin flicked away the video feed and pulled up a new file of footage. Something I remembered sensing during the day of initiation.

So… this was what our meeting is all about…

The kid who died during initiation.

"His name is Maroon Alister."

Ozpin gestured to the video clip as it began to play. It was from one of the observational cameras hidden in one of the trees.

On screen was Kitsuki, surrounded by an encroaching array of beowolves and ursa working together.

21 combatants on the field.

"He hailed from Vacuo, had accolades from every combat competition held in the Kingdom, and was the frequent champion of the area's kingdom-wide events."

A dark red-haired boy flipped into the video's frame, slashing out the back of a beowolve's neck as he landed swiftly in front of the kitsune at the attack's center.

Apparently, the kid was a fan of a brown and gold color scheme, keeping a few hints of red in his attire as well. Maybe it was a Vacuo thing.

Either way, I saw a pair of calm, scarlet irises regard his opponents for just a brief second… before his image distorted then disappeared.

That wasn't a Semblance.

That was just his natural speed.

"Master of martial arts and the impressive masterful honing of a unique executioner technique that involves the use of two curved daggers. He was always praised for his cunning ability to outsmart the defenses of whatever his opponent pit against him."

I watched as the boy appeared in the air, slipping in and out of the camera's poor focus as he cascaded the sharp, slashing edge of his blade down through whatever grimm he could get his hands on.

Three fell before he'd even touched the ground again.

His daggers seemed to extend their reach through wires attached to their pommels, pulling him around and allowing him to blade his way down through the tough tissue of his adversaries with ease.

But when it came down to the last few grimm… the video feed suddenly began to grow hazy.

Then the recording cut out.

"The camera filming the scene was destroyed," Ozpin explained, then held up his hand for a moment as he started flicking through camera numbers, "Including every camera in the immediate area."

"Sounds like someone tampered with your tech, Oz," I pointed out, crossing my arms.

Why was I here again?

"Not quite. Tampering with Beacon grounds isn't easy. It would be easy to apprehend anyone who so much as tried given all collected feeds from those cameras transmit directly to the school's mainframe. Even if one is destroyed, its data isn't lost."

Well doesn't _that_ throw a wrench into the system all of a sudden…

Great.

No wonder he needs help.

"So, nobody was seen tampering with it. What about remotely?" I asked.

"Each camera follows a nested web of connections. Hacking into one will alert the rest. The only way to control them remotely is from this desk or my master scroll. Both are carefully monitored by myself and Miss Goodwitch. The scroll in question was in my possession at the time of the incident, as well. As for my desk, it remained untouched and unpowered for the entire endeavor."

"Then what destroyed the cameras?"

"Good question," Ozpin replied, his smile twisting wider, "Analysis of the area showed each of the cameras short circuited from an unknown electrical signal. Like an EMP, if you will."

Those could be directed if you tried hard enough, but they weren't made for long range waves.

Not unless it was in the form of an artillery missile.

"Pulses like that can be traced," I pointed out, but somehow, I think he knew I'd say that.

Because that damned smirk grew even wider.

"Precisely. The tracing was already done. However," Oh _great_ , another wrench to throw into the gears, "the origination of the EMP surge came from the cameras themselves. This, Mister Ezdeil, is where I seem to be stumped."

Stumped or just too lazy to figure it out on your own, old man? This just feels like you're shoving off your work onto someone else just because it caught a few snags in your fishing line.

"So what? Your cameras committed mass suicide. Nothing you need me for," I returned, figuring my time was done here as I turned away.

"You and I both know there's only one witness that knows exactly what happened in that obscured moment…" Ozpin's voice spoke out again, catching my back as I started walking.

"You think my partner's that incapable of taking care of herself? Or worse, you think she's the one that killed him?" I deadpanned.

"That remains to be seen. No possibilities have been indefinitely ruled out yet. I'll keep looking into it, but… do consider looking into the matter yourself, Mister Ezdeil. I would appreciate the help."

If I wasn't so intent on this man liking me and actually trusting me enough for the moment I ask him about my father…

I might _actually_ consider those words.

But it's not my job to kiss the devil.

Anoel took that role ever since she met me.

"I have class," I said, waving over my shoulder, "I'll assume this excuses me from my first one."

"Indeed it does. Don't be late, Mister Ezdeil."

"Wouldn't dream of it."

I prefer to keep those dreams alongside the rest of its category…

With the psychotic rampages of killer kittens.

And the bloody demise of Jaune Arc.

* * *

 **Was this the first time I wrote a whole segment in Kit's perspective? Maybe. The scene involving the "Visitors" from Dante's team was proportionally in Kit's perspective as well.**

 **I tend to follow a style (for this story) that doesn't blatantly tell you who's perspective something is. I'm sure you can clearly tell whenever Niro's at the wheel (he's the only 1** **st** **person there is in here) but as for everyone else, that's something the writing should divulge to you.**

 **I'd rather not just state it up front. You lose the immersion if I do.**

 **Anyway, longer chapter this time. Sorry about that. I'm kicking some plot off (FINALLY). I just wanted to get you all acquainted with the characters before starting anything.**

 **Question... Does anyone have a good ship name for Arex and Kitsuki? I'll be trying to come up with something myself in the meantime.**

 **For now,** _ **Favorite**_ **and** _ **Follow**_ **.**

 **I look forward to seeing** _ **REVIEWS**_ **for this. You'll be introduced to a LOT of concepts of mine. Feel free to give me your thoughts.**

 **Cya XP**


	34. One-Sided

Rogue Huntsman

One-Sided

«»

A shrieking vibration ripped through the stands as a cracking wind nearly shattered the windows of the arena's wide room. The metal stage below might as well have just given in under the pressure and warp, but it held its ground.

Surprisingly.

Seems the architects of this academy actually put some sweat and tears into their product.

Too bad they couldn't do the same to the planet's population.

"I believe that is quite enough, Miss Xerious," Glynda spoke out through the thume in the air, her gaze locked on the same two combatants under the blinding spotlight of the most recent spar down below.

Or, the only one down there now anyway.

A quiet whine emitted from the hole in the wall where a body was embedded, sweaty golden hair clinging to the cracked stones in the masonry as Jaune Arc lay buried in its dusty grip.

Good for him. Actually penetrating something for a change.

With a girl no less.

First time for everything, I guess. Even if this is likely the only time it'll happen for the man.

Light purple eyes flicked back over the crowd as I watched Skyla sheathe her weapons, her gaze fleetingly passing over my position before she cracked a smile.

Something that weirdly reminded me of ice cream…

And space.

She gave a tiny wave that went ignored from my end before making her way off stage, letting nothing but an Arc's whines of pain and the echoey click of Glynda's heels fill the air now.

"I understand that our most recent unexpected… _school_ event may have been trying on many of you. However, administration gave you several days to recuperate your strength and regenerate your aura."

Glynda seemed content to just stand down there on the arena ground and rattle off old news. That was all literally last week.

None of us want to be here.

More specifically, _I_ don't want to be here.

But if it got me out of a face to face meeting with the falsity of Ozpin in the highest room of the tallest tower in this sad excuse of a beacon of hope…

Then for my sanity's sake why couldn't _this_ be even _remotely_ interesting…

I growled silently as my seat creaked, black boots settling over the backrest of the row in front of me as I let darkness settle over my eyes again.

I'd rather stare at the interior of my hat than that woman's face.

"With this being your first combat class of the week, I'll be picking these battles myself to reacquaint those who haven't fought yet with what this class will be offering you," the witch continued, "That being said, would Kitsuki Aeolus please make her way down."

A muffled thump that may as well have been a gunshot in a quiet room sounded out as I heard the kid in the beanie drop the glinting knife he's been lazily twirling.

Lucky. Ray actually brought something to play with while he sat boredly in his chair.

My eyes fell on the kitsune to my right, the one sat next to my other teammate.

The one with feathers.

The younger one.

The _submissive_ one.

After a few long moments of still silence and Glynda's gaze, Kitsuki finally pushed herself to her feet with startlingly rigid tails and flat ears.

Seems like something like this wasn't a stroll in the park for her.

That made sense.

 _Nobody's_ seen her fight.

"Thank you, Miss Aeolus. Now," Glynda's attention fell onto her wide scroll as she tapped a few simple instructions into its screen, Kitsuki's image and aura appearing on the screen above.

No matter who she chooses, she still won't fight them at full strength.

Hell, nobody knew if she could even fight at all.

It wasn't like we had anything to go on. The only one who's seen her in action is dead.

"As for your opponent," Glynda continued, her eyes flicking over the crowd before settling somewhere that forced me to peer out from beneath my hat.

You little-

"Mister Niro Ezdeil, will you please make your way down to the arena?"

So I can knock your teeth in?

Gladly.

Any chatter, side talk, flirting, or whatever other side projects the audience had today suddenly grew deathly silent as I stood up.

Seemed like everyone suddenly had an interest in this fight.

Too bad. Not all of you get to see it.

Now then… I guess it's high time this ridiculously constraining and stupidly vague mystery started to solve itself.

Who killed who. What killed what.

And who the hell cared enough to cover their tracks.

Three answers.

One move.

Even Anoel turned her attention to the match as my fingers placed down slowly on the wall of the arena.

With an uncaring flourish of black fabric, I slipped over its edge, ignoring the sudden micro-interests both Ray and Dante suddenly had on this fight too as I landed with the silent killing of my downward momentum.

Even Ray's damn partner turned her attention to the stage instead of staring longingly at his beanie.

My drop caught Kitsuki's attention immediately. Marigold eyes watched me carefully, the girl standing just across the way at the opposite side of the arena as I made my way toward my own position.

Whether this was staged or by complete spiteful coincidence, I didn't care.

My gaze slipped over her fur for a moment before I fixed my hat, letting my eyes drift toward the cameras in the room.

They seemed focused on the fight now too, one of which adjusting just inside to get a closer look at me.

 _Somebody_ was watching this fight intently.

And despite Ozpin being behind his desk right now with that sick smirk of his, he hadn't noticed yet that he didn't have full control over his own system.

Well, sorry to break it to you. _Both_ of you.

But no machine is going to record what's about to happen here.

"Now, do I need to repeat the rules to either of you?" Glynda asked the two of us.

We all know who you were directing that to, witch.

Kitsuki lightly shook her head no, her ears remaining flat on her head.

Glynda's gaze then met my dead eyes. Does it look like I care?

"Very well then. I reserve the right to call the match and will intervene if anything goes too far," Glynda stepped out of the ring and the lights in the stands suddenly flicked off, bright spotlights flicking on just overhead now before she adjusted the screen above to show my data off too.

They actually seemed to get a pretty good picture of me at some point in the forest. But my aura gauge failed to even appear on screen.

I see. Incompetence ran thick in this academy.

"Combatants, ready yourselves."

Kit slowly lowered herself closer to the ground, her eyes regarding me carefully as she placed a gentle hand on the ground just beneath her.

A stance for speed and mobility, huh?

Draw your weapon.

You'll need it.

"Begi-"

Glynda's petty words went mute as a bright fluctuation of my aura passed from my body and into the floor at my feet.

"Nobody _intervenes_ with my fights," I muttered, a bright glow flashing across my eyes just beneath the rim of my hat as I pulled it down.

Half my gaze grew covered as I smirked, the energy I flooded into the floor channeling outward as more and more of it drew out of my body.

Anyone ever tell you staring at the sun could blind you?

The entire arena shuddered under a new breaching crash through its solid foundation. Every electrical wire and structural bar in the floor supported the energy I coursed through the ground before every bit of shining light collected at the edges of our fighting ring and stopped.

Glynda seemed to give me a confused but guarded glare as she took a step toward the energy ring.

I couldn't help but widen my smirk.

That was the last thing she saw before I ripped the energy out of the ground and surged an encircling column of blinding lime green light straight out of the ground on all sides of the fight.

I poured more aura into it, slowly widening the field to force Glynda back even further and make the fight inside hazier to observe.

For the average student, something like this was already impossible to see through.

But I hated the over-achievers too, so I let my barrier breach the 4 feet margin before letting it stop there.

A surrounding, steady, overbearing energy field of solid, shining light… 4 feet thick…

Have fun watching this one, Ozpin.

"Now… draw your weapon," I stated lowly, the sound of the roaring walls around us growing muffled with a small passing movement of my hand.

She leveled a confused stare at me, her stance faltering for a moment as she looked around.

"Keeps the simpletons from seeing this. That bother you?" I asked.

She shook her head again.

"Good. Then you know no one's watching this that you don't want seeing you fight. If you can fight at all, that is," I continued, my body finally moving as I took a slow step to my right.

The sleeve of my coat brushed against the field of energy beside me as I watched her mimic my movements, moving to her right now as well.

It was gonna be one of these stupid talky dances, wasn't it?

Albeit 100% one-sided.

Kit didn't respond with anything, not even a sign. Just eyeing me as we circled each other at the furthest reaches of the arena.

Fine then.

The cloth of my glove pulled taut as I tightened my fingers, drawing aura out of the wall just behind her to force her toward me.

But the girl swiftly stepped to the side to avoid its touch, keeping her eyes on me.

Spacial awareness is high, reaction high as well.

Just like the kid that died.

So why the hell is he 6 feet under and she silent about this whole thing?

Two more branches of light broke free from the wall, one where she was walking, the other where she'd likely dodge, but she somehow slipped around each by flipping through the small gap I left in a quiet escape.

"You can move like you can fight. So, why don't we?" I asked, moving forward now to start closing the gap.

" _Because this doesn't matter."_

It was the first time she signed to me since this started.

"Doesn't matter? Or is it just that you know I don't care enough to beat into you?"

" _Both. You're not going to kill me, so I don't need to fight at my best."_

So, she was the kind of person to only try when it truly mattered.

The tip of my hat lowered for a moment, my fingers going slack as my gaze hid away from her line of sight.

Our footsteps grew quiet after that moment, my boots coming to a halt.

I've always hated those kinds of people…

"Then I guess I'll just have to kill you."

Her confusion rose as her tails stilled, the smallest bit of hesitation passing through her shiny eyes as I let a smirk play across my lips.

Let's see just what you're made of, kitsune.

Energy separated itself from the walls around me before sharpening into a thin, slicing arc.

The entire wave lurched toward her frail neck, sliding through the air and closing the distance in a fraction of a second.

It took her entire body just to narrowly dodge its edge.

My frame tipped forward in the next moment before I moved into her guard, Kitsuki just now blinking as I tore a sparking green light through the air and reached for her neck.

She'd only just registered what was going on and sprang backward in whatever space she had, only for the back of her head to catch into the palm of my glove as I stepped behind her escape path.

Draw it.

My fingers squeezed around her head for a moment before she dug a heel into my leg and forcefully brought her other leg back, kicking my arm away from its grasp on her before kicking away.

She was quick to move her eyes back to me as she slid back on the balls of her boots, the pads of her fingers gliding across the ground as she watched for my next move.

"Keeping yourself unarmed won't do you any good," I commented, drawing more energy out of the wall and twisting four streams around my tightening fist and forearm.

Guess it came down to this.

I stepped forward before disappearing from her awareness, the crunch of bone and slamming of skin against skin ripped out into the air in the same moment as I sent both fist and energy into her side and shattered her aura shield there.

Fragments of it rippled across her body before just barely reforming her shield, the rest of herself crashing against the glass-like barrier before falling into a pained crouch, hand on her side.

"Bruises heal," I muttered next to her ear, the kitsune sliding away as soon as she realized how close I'd moved.

She moves fast at least.

Faster than Arex.

But not fast enough.

Eight clusters of energy in sets of three strands surged out of the wall as she ran to create distance, forcing her to dodge and lithely turn her body through the air just to avoid them.

I caught her mid-flip, the energy just melting harmlessly around my body as I brought down another strike to the small of her back, seeing her reduce the impact with a cradled roll on her side.

Still not drawing it?

Green energy swept back into my grasp as I tore it forward, glowing strands of light hardening and forming a manifestation large enough to slam into her side and send her careening toward the other half of the arena.

"You're clever," I spoke again, catching her by the back of the neck before forcing her down to slam her into the floor.

But she still somehow managed to get a leg beneath herself to step forward and rotate backward, grasping my arm with the both of her own as she flipped around it and tore herself back out of my grasp.

"You can dodge, recover, and reduce the impact of blows with nothing but your arms and legs," I continued, slowly standing back up as she created more distance.

She only leveled her calm gaze back onto my own as she dipped her chin into her scarf, one fingers back on the ground as her tails splayed out behind her.

She was still just intent on letting this play out.

Then I guess I needed to try harder.

More energy drew itself from the wall and wrapped around my leg as I leapt forward and brought my heel down onto her, two hands and her forearm glancing the blunt strike into the ground before she planted a boot on my knee.

A blur of white passed my vision as I saw her use my shoulder as a stepping stone, throwing herself into a slow spin in the air as I met her gaze again.

Murderers run or stay with a plan.

Victims hide.

The intent in her eyes…

She wanted nothing more than to run from where this was going.

"I'm sorry to break it to you," my hand reached up as a field of streaking strands formed from the walls around her, hiding away the ceiling as they laced together just behind her twisting body, "But I'm not letting you run from this."

Everything came crashing down on her as she reached her peak, dropping with enough force to crush her into the ground.

And that was when I finally heard it.

My smirk slowly formed again as a metallic ring flooded through the air, the air splitting around something sharp as it swept into the center of my falling strands and tore them open.

The rest of them fell away, crashing into the ground with enough force to shake the arena as I saw her falling just after them.

A white streak followed the movement of her hand. Thin, shining cloth trailing just behind her grip as she landed with a soft tap and turned to face me.

"So that's what your neck looks like," I commented, moving forward now too.

She'd drawn her blade.

Kitsuki's eyes narrowed at my approach, the tip of my hat merely just dipping for a moment as I regarded her eyes with a proper greeting.

It'd be even more unfair if I drew a weapon of my own too.

"Try not to blink."

The step in my walk stalled for just a moment to tip my frame forward, her perception drawing into a thin line again as I made my way around her.

Her eyes tracked me this time, unlike the rest of the times I'd done the exact same move.

She was _actually_ trying now.

Now to find out if I'm right.

My gaze watched her pivot in time to swing the metallic cloth of her scarf toward the base of my neck, the fabric whipping into a rigid, double-edged sword for just a brief passing moment.

The very moment it'd make contact.

And it did.

She tore the scarf toward her as soon as it dug into my skin, ripping through a shallow portion of blood, skin, and tendon as she carried that momentum around and drew an upward slash across my chest.

She was faster now too.

Her next slash met the back of my glove, the fabric of my own weapon glancing her scarf away as I stepped forward into her guard.

It was there I found something crucial out about all this.

Her scarf whipped forward in a flash, without a slicing motion this time, as she brought the bend of it around my back and caught the fist I'd just pressed into her side.

She leveraged it back before her body slipped around my own, disappearing beneath my free arm before a deep gash drug itself up my back with a follow-up slash.

She flourished inside guards.

Her boots reconnected with the ground as I pivoted, turning to face her again only to see the falling traces of her flowing hair as she dipped beneath my swinging arm again and wrapped another end of her scarf around its wrist.

She threw her entire body into a vicious twist as she kicked up over my leg and passed my opposite shoulder, forcing my arm up with her.

Turning an opponent's strength against them, huh?

I stopped the pull just before my fist could knock off my hat, forcing her back down toward the ground as I took a grip of her scarf and yanked.

The girl fell toward my rising knee, but the weight at the end of the scarf suddenly vanished as she let go and bent her body just around the imposing impact, pushing away from my shin to land on her hands.

She moved quickly again, dashing up for just long enough to kick my risen leg outward to widen my stance, taking that moment to break my guard again and reclaim her scarf with a healthily deep cut into the palm of my hand.

So…

She landed back on the ground just a few feet away, attention sharply on me as she let her bloodied white scarf dangle toward the floor.

I was right after all.

Her gaze was still as calm as it had been since the start, a strong indifference just inside her irises as I flexed my sliced hand then lowered it toward the floor.

Blood continued to seep from the wounds across my body, slipping down my arm and over my fingers to fall softly to the arena floor just below.

It was easy for her to figure out I wasn't using aura to shield myself after the first hit drew blood.

But…

It wasn't easy to accept it just as easily as she did.

Which means…

We're done here.

Death was just a part of her life.

And she hated it.

My smirk fell as I moved forward, finding her slip beneath my arm in the same moment as she caught my reaching hand by the wrist with her scarf and entangled it.

Cold cloth whipped tightly around in a coil before a razored edge tightened into my flesh.

The kitsune's white scarf suddenly snapped like a vice as she ripped it downward, cutting down to the bone of my arm as the entire scarf unraveled against my flesh, dragging the full edge of its blade through me.

But it didn't go further than that.

"We're done, Kit," I said evenly, the intent in my gaze falling away as my wounds began to seal themselves.

It was the first time she hesitated to make an actual move, getting ready to move away while my arm still stayed outstretched above her.

Marigold eyes cast back up toward me in confusion again.

Oh. Right.

That was the first time I used her name.

Some of it, anyway.

My fingers lowered slowly, nestling onto the top of her head before I rested a clean palm between her ears.

A small, unnoticeable burst of energy trickled over her body to burn away whatever traces of my blood that happened to land on her, finishing with cleaning her weapon clean of crimson and scarlet as well.

With that, I took my hand back and dropped the surrounding field.

The timer above still continued to tick as I made my way toward the edge of the arena.

"I forfeit," I called out, giving dear old Glynda a short wave over my shoulder as I passed the threshold of the arena and walked off.

* * *

Arex had her hands tightly gripped on the top edge of the observational wall throughout the entirety of the fight.

The girl's body refusing to even let her continue to sit as she stood away from her seat and at a place as close as she could possibly get to the arena below.

She'd been monitoring Kitsuki's aura, the only stat visible on the screen, which was just recently dipping into the dark orange. And with a painstaking focus on her part, she'd managed to just barely watch the heat signatures inside and see what was going on.

But she was only able to see Kitsuki's, and that scared her.

Niro didn't have one.

When the barrier fell, she couldn't help but breathe a quiet sigh of relief when she saw Kit standing silently at the center of the arena, her gaze watching as Niro walked off and forfeited the match.

Arex didn't really know much about the system here, but it sounded like forfeiting was allowed. And to see Niro go to this extent for a fight, the phoenix began to realize that he had an ulterior motive to everything that went down in that match.

It just pained her to realize she had no idea what that motive was.

Kit's eyes eventually glanced back to where Arex had been sitting, finding the girl at the railing of the wall in the same general area before frowning for a moment.

Even so, it was just for a fleeting second before the silent room suddenly broke with a slow, gentle clap.

Arex's gaze drifted off as she saw Kitsuki's own eyes find the source of the noise as well, the two finding Scarlet, Ray's partner, lightly clapping, the girl standing from her seat while doing so as she beamed a smile down at Kit.

Was she… able to see through the field?

Arex soon noticed Yang stand up off to the side and clap too, then Kyzal as well, intent on keeping the clapping going as he started leisurely doing the same thing his teammate was.

So, some people were able to actually see what happened through the field.

Which meant Niro wasn't even trying for full coverage.

He was targeting something out… or someone...

But, what?

It didn't take long for Dante and Inuba to join in as well, and soon enough Kit was getting a standing applause from a rising collection of people.

Arex turned an apologetic look back to her kitsune stuffing her face into the scarf around her neck, tails tightly winding around her waist to shrink further and further away.

She almost felt bad for her…

But she needed this.

* * *

The darkness of the exit hallway fell to light as I made it back out into the locker rooms, the only thing stopping me now was the tap of a silvered cane.

"Blocking the cameras brought me out of my office," Ozpin said, the gaze of his experienced eyes watching me as I flexed my glove and stopped just beside him, "It gave me a reason to come down and observe the fight first hand."

So, it was planned after all.

"Find anything? Did she kill him?" the headmaster asked calmly.

"No. But someone did," I returned, glancing toward him for a moment before moving on.

"Why block the cameras then?"

I gave the man a short wave before making my way toward the exit, "Because someone _else_ was watching."

* * *

 **Hmm… Hopefully that fight was interesting enough to read.**

 **College has started back up. So with any luck, I'll be able to get back into my weekly schedule once I've reacquainted myself with the heavy workloads.**

 **No promises though.**

 **So, what'd you think of a Niro vs Kit fight?**

 **There was a lot that went down in this chapter, more than what was put forward in an obvious manner. This entire fight scene actually played into Kitsuki's history and what's happened to her in her backstory.**

 **There's a big arc that'll directly pertain to that. But for those who have been paying attention, the third party watching the fight has already been revealed.**

 **And no. It was not the lion.**

 **For now,** _ **Favorite**_ **and** _ **Follow**_ **.**

 **I look forward to seeing** _ **REVIEWS**_ **for this. You'll be introduced to a LOT of concepts of mine. Feel free to give me your thoughts.**

 **Cya XP**


	35. Shattered

Rogue Huntsman

Shattered

«»

Kit hissed with a silent whimper as Arex pressed an ice pack into her side. There was a lot of bruising over her body from her fight with Niro, and to fight someone who wasn't even trying and come out this battered wasn't a great feeling.

But to have fought him… and for him to have actually fought back? It was the first she'd even seen that much of his fighting style.

If it was even his actual style to begin with.

 _Ow ow ow ow owww-!_ Kitsuki tried to roll over as her tails tightened into a twisted knot, trying to stave off the pain that swelled across her body where her pale skin darkened into deep purple.

Her aura shield having done absolutely nothing against any of his strikes.

"S-sorry. But if I leave the bruises untended, you and I both know they'll only get worse before they get better," Arex muttered, keeping the chilled pack pressed into the fox's side as she rested her hand on the girl's shoulder.

A gentle pressure was added there, wanting to keep Kit from moving as she handled her wounds.

The kitsune let out another silent whimper as the cold flared against her skin, her body never capable of dealing with colder temperatures too well.

Her one weakness… of many, actually.

"Here."

Kit opened her marigold eyes in time to see Arex lean over her, the phoenix letting out a light breath before crawling overtop of the kitsune.

After a moment, the raven-haired girl rested her knees on either side of the kitsune's body before lifting the ice pack into view.

"I need you to hold still for just a few more minutes," Arex started, glancing down at Kitsuki beneath her as the kitsune stopped wiggling so much, "If you don't mind, I might be able to distract your body from the pain with a little heat. Where's your body most se-"

Arex flushed a little red after realizing what she was about to ask, so instead she quickly changed her wording with an admittedly slightly higher voice.

"I-is there anywhere you think that can distract you enou-"

The girl stopped talking again as a soft weight settled across her legs, white fur brushing against the cloth of her pants as she looked down. Three white tails slowly unraveled from how tightly they'd been pressed together, lightly flicking back and forth at the tips.

"T-that'll work."

Arex ignored the fact that Kit was suddenly incredibly still beneath her, taking her own deep breath to both settle her nerves and begin to channel a steady flow of hot aura into her hand.

With a gentle glow swirling around her hand and wrist, she carefully and slowly reached down and started running her slim fingers through the fur of Kitsuki's tails.

The fluffy appendages immediately quivered beneath her touch, Arex holding her breath as she pressed the ice pack against the mute's largest bruise.

A frozen hiss emanated through the dorm room as the ice Dust transitioned from the pack to Kitsuki's skin, sheening over with a soft crackle as the particles clung to the bruised, once pale flesh.

This time, Kitsuki didn't flinch. Instead, the kitsune kept golden-orange eyes locked on Arex's as the phoenix looked down at where she was applying the ice.

A small shiver ran through the kitsune's spine, but it wasn't one from the cold. The same shiver traveled through her tails just as Arex's heated fingers brushed over their tips, the girl's slim hand moving back through Kit's fur to run up their lengths again and back to their bases.

With Arex's knees pressed into the bed and her hands busy, she hadn't really noticed the fact that she was leaning down close to Kitsuki's own body from her straddled position at the kitsune's waist. She was more worried about the injuries right now than their proximity.

And that was something Kit didn't mind.

"The Dust coating helps with mending, so don't wash it off until it's at least been on for an hour or two," Arex spoke softly, her attention focused on her ministrations as the time slowly ticked by, "It comes off pretty easily. Just make sure you get it all off when you do."

Kit slowly nodded to the warning, one of her fox ears flicking on her head in affirmation. That and Arex's hot touch grazed up closer to the base of her tails.

She wanted it to go up further, but the phoenix didn't go all the way, Arex's hand turning to run back through Kit's fur once it's digits almost reached where Kit wanted them to go.

"Alright, that should do it. It'll feel weird at first, but I think you can get used to it," Arex sighed, flicking off the thin medical device in her hand before reaching over and resting it on the nightstand.

With her weight already a bit shifted, she started to move to get off Kitsuki now that she was done. But the tails resting across her legs suddenly tightened around her.

Arex couldn't help but let out a surprised yelp as Kit's hands found their way around her waist, slipping just beneath the hem of her shirt to encircle her bare lower back and stomach.

The kitsune's cold touch brought a slight shiver to Arex's spine, but the confusion and embarrassment only rose when the kitsune rolled the both of them over in their shared beds and buried her face into the cloth of Arex's sweater.

"C-cold, I-I'd imagine?" Arex managed to squeak out, face flushing back into the red as she felt Kitsuki's lithe body press fully against her own.

Kit's arms encircling Arex's slim waist pulled more securely as the kitsune nodded, pressing herself more into the heat of her partner as she shivered.

"Y-yeah, it can get a bit cold…" Arex said idly, her voice light and airy again as she rested her head back.

Her gaze watched as Kit's ears went from folded to just drooping, twitching every so often on top of her head. The phoenix rolled her eyes at the adorable display, reaching an unpinned hand up to lightly scratch the ears before her.

 _It's cute how easily you get cold…_ Arex felt the kitsune relax into her as she evened out her own breathing, this position not an unfamiliar one by now for the two of them.

It took more than a few nights to accept the fact that Kit liked sleeping this way, but it was comforting to know that the kitsune actually _got_ sleep when she was in this position.

Maybe it was a security thing, or a trust thing, but there was a variable involved that Arex wasn't really too sure about. Whatever it was, it was actually helping the girl sleep, so the phoenix just learned to get used to it.

It helped that she found it adorable too, if also strangely reassuring on her end as well. To hold her like that.

"Warm yet?" Arex asked, glancing down as she lightly rubbed the velvety tips of Kitsuki's ears.

The phoenix felt Kit shake her head, face still pressed into her sweater. She couldn't help but smile lightly at that.

"Of course not. Think you'll be anytime soon?"

She wasn't surprised to get another shake of the head, so she just sighed and switched ears, feeling Kit's body shudder at the transition of her still slightly heated fingers.

Part of Arex was wondering if Kit was actually cold in all this, and to the kitsune's defense, Arex knew for a fact that Kitsuki got cold incredibly easily. But a part of her also realized how scary it must have been to go up against Niro like that.

It looked like he really did have the intent to kill, and he leveled his punches and abilities to Kitsuki's own likely dodging prowess on top of that.

It… must've been terrifying… fighting at your highest limit while your opponent controlled every tiny moment of the match.

Still, Arex was impressed by what Kit did in there. That was another reason why she wasn't being too reluctant about Kit's hold right now.

She deserved it.

* * *

' _Went a little hard on her, don't you think?'_

' _Going easy on someone is hardly classed as hard.'_

' _Even better! She's fine now, though. Arex said she'd take care of her. Isn't that sweet?'_ Anoel sent with a smile, leaning back in her booth as she glanced to the bar.

She watched Niro mix another drink before glancing down to his own scroll just behind the wooden countertop, his face retaining that permanent neutrality she'd grown to like.

'" _Sweet" isn't the term I'd use for that. Horny would work better.'_

Anoel's smile widened, _'You're right. We should get them together.'_

' _Why "we"?'_

' _Come on! You and I both know that you're just a bundle of love and joy.'_ The info-broker couldn't help but giggle to herself as she sent that, taking a sip from her Lyra to hide her amusement.

' _Maybe in another lifetime.'_

' _You can if you really wanted to.'_ Anoel replied. Niro had a big heart, he just hadn't realized it yet. At least, that's how Anoel saw it.

She saw a lot of things in a different light.

' _Refill?'_ she asked, glancing up with a smirk to find a new glass lowering from a stream of lime green wires out of the light-emitting aura of the ceiling.

He was always fast with that.

With a quick, wordlessly mouthed 'thank you' to Niro behind the bar, she slid her empty glass to the edge of the table and mindlessly stirred the new drink in front of her.

The liquid brushed up against the edges as she played with the glass, but none of it spilled. It was a habit she needed to drop eventually, just not now.

It was fun to do it for now.

Golden eyes flicked to the side curiously, the seat in front of her having been empty for a while now. Ly had some business to deal with, so she was making a few dealings with two tables just in Ano's peripherals.

That girl was good at what she did… And it didn't help that gems and jewels were Ly's obsession on top of that.

After a moment of watching some haggling, her focus turned back to her scroll as she danced a slim few touches across the keyboard.

' _Why'd you do it?'_

' _Do what?'_

The response was pretty immediate, another smile making its way to the elder sister's face, _'Why'd you actually put a little effort forward? You could've done anything to walk away from that.'_

Despite her mirth, she was curious. Something she rarely ever wasn't feeling. But, this time was a little different. Of all the other times she's ever felt curious, which were too many to count, she couldn't remember any of them being paired with a pang of worry to coincide with that curiosity.

She was… a little worried. If someone was finally able to get Niro to do something he didn't want to do, that was bad.

Really bad…

' _Wanted answers. Got them.'_

Anoel's brow furrowed slightly at that. It was times like this where she hated the fact that she couldn't read Niro like she could everyone else.

All she could do was take his words for it. Everything else about him was unreadable… and she was among the best in that department in its entirety.

' _Did you like what you found out?'_ Anoel asked, stopping her stirring of her glass for just a moment. His response… wasn't so immediate.

' _No.'_

She'd have to talk to him personally about what he found out. But, she knew there was a good chance he wasn't going to tell her if she did. He rarely did.

He rarely told anyone the truth.

She'd been trying to get through that wall of his for both of their shared lives now. Despite that, her progress was minimal, more than a little noticeable at least, but still not enough to see through him.

' _I'll tell you later. It'll interest you more than it does me.'_

The message came as a surprise, Anoel quirking a brow as she read it, _'When?'_

' _Sooner is better than later.'_

"Oh _really_? If it wasn't fake, I wouldn't be able to do _this_."

Anoel glanced over just in time to see Ly smash a faux ruby on the table she was sat at, the teens in front of her staring in shock as the fragments scattered across the tabletop and onto the floor.

The ringleader, a boy who looked no older than 16, was desperately struggling to comprehend what the woman had just done.

"Y-You…"

"Are you trying to fuck me, boy?" Ly asked, glaring at him through harsh blue eyes, "Because it looks like you're trying to fuck me."

"That's my job!" Anoel called out, giving a wave to the table and to the boys.

One of the teens was quick to draw a gun, though, leveling it on Ly's head as the girl rolled her eyes.

"Put that thing away before you hurt yourself."

When the boy didn't listen, Ly's only response was to sigh before cloaking.

Within the span of a few but incredibly short seconds the teenager had been disarmed, thrown to the floor, and had his own gun pointed at him by a now visible Lylac.

A loud thump cracked into the silenced room as the magazine of the gun was flung across the floor, the girl priming the slide back to eject its loaded round soon after before courteously dropping the firearm onto his crotch.

"If you have the balls to draw your weapon, you should at least have the decency to pull the trigger too."

Anoel couldn't help but smirk as she watched.

"Now fuck off."

Golden eyes watched the table rattle beneath the conjoined effort of several kids in over their heads standing up and grabbing their things. In the time Ly took to stand back up from having her knee pressed into the kid's chest, they were all gone.

The boy on the floor being the last one out.

As the last one ungracefully scrambled out the door, Ly released a deep sigh of relief as she spun around and glanced at Niro.

"Drink, alcoholic, price doesn't matter, as soon as possible, thanks."

"Try not to get shot in my bar either," he deadpanned, starting work on a quick drink, "The only one I'll legally take credit for is a white sandbag."

"If you say so, kid," Ly replied, "I'm not exactly a stranger to pulling bullets out of people, myself included."

"Nobody in this bar is."

His point was emphasized by a stifled scream in the corner before the unmistakable sound of a crushed bullet getting dropped into a metal tin rung into the room.

"Just get me my drink."

"Already did," Niro replied, letting a hard Lyra move through the system before dropping it lightly onto the table just across from Anoel, who was waving to the girl with a smile.

"Thanks," Ly spoke, his hand rising to catch a tossed black gem over the bar's countertop, "That's for the drink… And the window."

Lime green eyes glanced down before dropping the gem into his pile of lien behind the bar, "That's worth 2 mil, you know."

"Don't care, just keep my glass full," Ly muttered, making her way across the room to rejoin Ano.

"Anything else need to stay full?" Anoel asked with a small smirk, tipping her glass up as Ly took her drink and moved it over to Ano's side of the booth.

The info-broker slid over with amusement, letting Ly slide in just after her with a lengthy sigh leaving her lips.

"My purse would be nice," Ly replied, taking a sip of her drink, "hence why I'm _here_ making deals with people who can't tell the difference between crystals and glass…"

"You know… there's another way to get paid for your services," Anoel lowered the tone of her voice just a bit, emphasizing the tease before resting her head on Ly's shoulder, "Most people can't tell that kind of difference, you know. You're more skilled than you think you are."

"For a second there, I thought you were suggesting prostitution, Ano." Ly smirked.

"Well, if you want to think of it like that… yes. But _I_ like to see it as casual sex with benefits," Anoel returned. But, despite her words, it was a job she wished no woman ever had to do.

"My body is a temple. None of these goons are worthy," Ly replied bluntly, puffing out her chest with pride.

"Never said it had to be with just anyone. There's one goon sitting here who really enjoys your company," Anoel said with a mock pout, idly lifting her glass by the tips of her fingers and swirling the liquid inside.

Ly glanced down and gave the info-broker a small smirk, "You're the rare exception, but don't tell them that."

Anoel smiled at that, "Never."

The glass in her hand found its way back to the table as Ano leaned over and pecked Ly's cheek, but her eyes glanced to the window to see someone she didn't expect to see just outside.

 _Why is…?_ Confused eyes glanced over to Niro to see him looking in the same direction, calmly regarding the door as it opened before he went back to what he was doing.

Why was Inuba Kitsukami strolling into the Black Stallion with Elisia Fey, their new TA at Beacon…?

"Man...!" was the first word out of Elisia's mouth as she stretched her arms at the entrance, "That was a good meal wasn't it?"

"It was, but… why are we here again?" the kitsune asked.

" _This_ , my fluffy tailed friend, is our last stop for the night. Part of the whole de-stressing process. Relax, I'm here with you, so it'll be fine. That, and he owns this place," she said, casually gesturing toward Niro.

Inuba seemed surprised to see him here of all places, Anoel as well, once her gaze swept over to the back corner booth.

"Hey guys! What might you all be doing here?" the rabbit faunus continued, practically dragging Inuba across the room toward them.

"Nothing nefarious, I promise," Anoel called back, giving the girl a quirked smile as she leaned away from Ly's neck, "Just fantasizing sexually."

"Oh? Who about?" she asked taking a seat with her friend across from Anoel and Ly, "Tall and brooding behind the counter?"

"Whenever I feel adventurous. I have sexual fantasies about most people I see," Anoel replied with a teasing smile, "Just in case I ever come across a mind reader."

A small chortle from Anoel's side debunked that horrible lie.

"Oh~? Am I perhaps eye-catching enough for such an honor?"

"Your flirting game is weak," Ly rejected.

Anoel rolled her eyes at Ly's quick retort before eyeing the curvy faunus across the way, "Depends. I'm already picturing you in lingerie."

"Lucky me, I'm wearing my best right now."

"Lovely. May I see?" Anoel asked.

"This enough?" Elisia replied, tugging down the collar of her shirt low enough for Anoel and Ly to see, showing her milky collarbone and shoulder to peek what she was hiding.

Anoel let a soft reverberation resonate in the back of her throat before tilting her head, eyes slipping down over the curves of Elisia's heat signature, "Makes me wonder what else you're hiding."

" _Santo dio…_ " Ly murmured as she pinched the bridge of her nose.

Ano slipped a hand down over Ly's thigh as she smirked a bit at the comment, eyes transitioning over to Inuba, "So, what're you wearing?"

"M-Me?!" she asked in surprise as she went rigid.

"I mean, I can already see your lovely body's curves just fine, this is just for curiosities sake," Anoel commented, giving Inuba an amused smirk.

"She's wearing monochrome underwear," Ly answered for the kitsune, "Is that string tie I sense?"

"You're quite right, Ly," Ano added, her smirk turning devious, "Perfect for… quickly disrobing."

Inuba couldn't cope with the verbal game, the poor girl hiding her face behind her hands as she flushed red.

"What are you...?" Elisia paused for a moment, a sudden epiphany hitting her, "Oh my goodness… Aren't you just adorable?" she said, hugging the shamed Kitsune.

' _Our's is cuter.'_ Niro pinged in, Anoel glancing down before smirking.

' _You checking her out?'_ Anoel responded with a quick few taps, her attention staying on the conversation in front of her.

' _Half the bar is.'_

She rolled her eyes at that, _'Of course.'_

" _Perverts…_ " Ly whispered in Ano's ear.

"Hardly anything new, love," Ano whispered back, turning her gaze back to Elisia, "Aside from asking you about sexual escapades, I am curious why you're here. And with Inuba, of all people."

"Well, I certainly needed a good way to unwind. He may not seem like it, but Professor Gladian can be a real slave driver sometimes. I kinda have to pick up the slack in terms of work he leaves unfinished. Like grading papers. As for this one… well… boy troubles, kinda my fault."

"Is it the hot and bothered kind of problem? If it is, I have a pretty good idea of who this boy is," Anoel responded, eyes glancing to the kitsune.

"After the whole panties thing, I do too now. Didn't quite understand her reaction when I 'accidentally' ripped his shirt during class and made him eye candy for a few of the others. Now I do," Elisia commented.

"Well, doing that in front of the entire class really makes a statement, you know. I think some girls even swooned. Inuba came very close…"

"This is why I never want to attend Beacon Academy," Ly sighed.

"Honey, I can rip your clothes off whenever I want."

"Only because I gave you unconditional permission."

"In any case," Elisia interjected, "My fault for stressing her out, so we've been out all day as my way of repaying her. And now we're here."

"Oh? So all I have to do is get a little hot and bothered in class and I get to go out on a date with you?" Ano asked.

"For you? Maybe. But really, she was more stressed out about the swooning more than anything."

"Hmm… if you're having this kind of jealousy problem, I guess this really is a big issue. It's only natural though," Anoel pointed out, "They're all young adults crammed into a singular setting surrounded by bodies attractively sculpted by aura and training regimes."

"Well… mostly," Ly idly commented.

All of a sudden, a blonde walking by suddenly tripped on nothing and slammed onto the floor, getting a rise out of the drunkards around him.

It reminded her of someone…

"Well don't you worry. I'll knock the competition down, when there's any, if that makes you feel a little better," Elisia offered.

"A little…" replied Inuba.

Anoel quietly sighed, "You're head over tails for him, aren't you…?"

"V-very much so," Inuba muttered back, "Many people have had… different reasons for focusing their attention on him. Some not for the best reasons or intentions."

Inuba's voice grew quieter, embarrassment somewhere in there slowly rising.

"I… may not have the purest thoughts about him at times, but with how long we've known each other, what we've been through, and how much he's suffered on my behalf… I can't help but feel as intensely as I-I… do… a-about… him. E-excuse me?"

Inuba's eyes leveled on Ly's gaze and couldn't help but notice where it was directed that whole time.

"Are they real?" Ly asked, her eyes having been staring at Inuba's bust while seemingly not interested in her entire monologue.

"W-what?"

"Your breasts," Anoel clarified.

She immediately hid her chest from view while Elisia answered for her with an "ok" gesture, "One hundred percent authentic."

Ly took a sip from her drink before replying, "Interesting."

Anoel's gaze quickly switched back to Elisia with a flash of intrigue, "You've felt them?" She almost looked disappointed. Feeling left out like that.

"Pounced her in the locker room today out of curiosity. The results? Satisfying..."

"And you _didn't_ invite _me_?" Anoel asked, looking genuinely hurt.

Ly cleared her throat, getting another smile out of Ano.

"Let's swap numbers and I'll let you know when I plan my next 'attack'."

"Honey, just announce it in class. It's not like it's a secret or anything where her true interests lie," Anoel's eyes slowly traced over to Inuba as a smile formed, "Everybody already knows."

"I… can't quite tell him yet…" Inuba replied meekly.

"Of course not," Anoel's smirk remained, her hand finding her way to her glass as she lifted it to drink, "But I can."

"P-please don't! I have no doubt you know why by now given your… ability…"

"It's quite easy to know why, honey," Anoel responded evenly, setting her glass back down.

"Just write it on your boobs and flash him, easy," Ly mischievously suggested.

"I-I can't do that! That's...!"

" _Lewd?_ " Ly interjected, flashing the girl a toothy grin.

"She's worried they'll bounce too much and distract him," Anoel offered, "That's why I prefer your size, Ly."

"Trust me, that's already a thing. It's honestly adorable how hard he tries to look away," Elisia cut in.

"Does he snap his neck trying to face the other direction then?" Ly wondered.

"It's hard to miss when he's the only guy in the room looking elsewhere," Anoel added, "And trust me, you may have also turned a couple girls bi by strolling into this school."

"Alright alright, we've had our fun. Let's leave her be for now. Can we get two of what you're having?" Elisia asked.

"Speaking of which, I need a refill. Niro! Make yourself useful!" Ly called out, only for Niro to point down.

A new drink was already sitting in front of her.

"You said to keep it topped off," he commented idly, moving onto the other two drinks. They were in front of Inuba and Elisia just as quickly.

"Much appreciated," Ly responded, giving him a thumbs up.

"What sort of beverage is this?" Elisia asked.

Anoel stirred her glass as she glanced down into it, "Whiskey, bourbon, ice."

"A drink that makes you happy," Ly added, downing hers in one hit and watching amusedly as it refilled before her eyes.

Inuba watched the others for a few moments before she began slowly drinking her own in one go.

"That's the _spirit_!"

Anoel chortled at the raw sarcasm in Ly's voice, "Triple pun. That's horrible."

Ly nudged Ano's elbow with her own with a satisfied smirk on her face.

"Ah! That was good," Elisia's own glass sat empty, a pleasant sigh leaving her lips.

"Laugh all you want…" the kitsune replied with a hiccup afterwards, "It doesn't matter to me in the slightest."

The hiccup caught Anoel's attention, her gaze glancing over in question of something, "Are you a lightweight?"

"God, I hope so…" Ly commented.

"N-No...!" Inuba replied with another hiccup, a pout forming, "Most certainly not…"

Anoel hummed in response to that, "Well, while you're easing away from sobriety, might as well ask you a few questions. With Dante always on your mind, I take it you've never kissed anyone yet? Saving it for him?"

She nodded rapidly in response, swaying back and forth slightly.

"Are you ever afraid someone might steal your first kiss?" Anoel continued.

"Mmmmm… Yes...? I don't know…"

"But what if Dante steals it?" Ly questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"He can… steal it whenever he wishes to…"

"Do you think he'd stop anyone else who would try?" Anoel asked.

"Probably… I… don't really know what he thinks anymore…"

Anoel shook her head at that, "Trust me, you don't want to know. But there's really only one way to find out."

"H-how...?"

The phoenix sighed in response to that as she slid her way around the booth's interior, making her way over to Elisia's side before looking over her to Inuba, "If he's as fast as I think he is, I think he can stop me from kissing you. Right?"

"Wha...?"

Anoel's eyes glanced to the door for a moment before smirking, leaning over a happily grinning Elisia to get closer to the kitsune, "Best to not question the logic, just as long as it works."

The phoenix reached a hand over and lightly turned Inuba's face toward her own, the two of them only a few inches apart as Anoel smiled.

"I'm very good at stealing things… so don't be surprised if I can actually steal this," Ano commented, just before leaning forward with the very real intention of capturing Inuba's lips with her own.

That was until she was stopped by a hand moving in between their faces.

"Now just what might you be thinking of doing?" asked a familiar and completely expected voice.

He managed to cross the room rather quickly, she admitted.

Anoel's smile quickly grew as she leaned away, lightly tapping Inuba's cheek before bringing her hand back into her lap.

"The boyfriend's here. _Oh sorry_ , I was a little late," Ly informed them, her voice ever so slightly tainted with covetousness.

"Mind explaining to me just what you were about to do?" Dante asked.

Ano glanced toward him with an innocent gaze, "Afraid she might've liked kissing a girl?"

"No… I'm more than sure she likely would've been mortified that she did something like that without remembering."

"Awe, comments like that hurt you know," Anoel pouted, moving back to sitting closely beside Ly and leaning against her, "And what if I actually kissed her?"

His eyes closed for a moment as a smile formed on his face, "Well…" he started as he leaned in closer to them, eyes opening to reveal they had changed, "I'd probably have to do something unpleasant."

Despite the air slowly getting colder from his darker eyes, Anoel gazed back with a widening smile, "Worked like a charm, then."

Before any other action was taken, everyone turned their heads toward a quiet chomping noise, hearing a silent wince from Dante as he glanced down.

Inuba had her lips clasped onto his arm as she gnawed on him, a muffled "don't be mean" slipping out from her biting and perked ears.

He just let out a sigh and sat down, helping Inuba scoot over as Elisia made them room in the booth.

' _Still cuter.'_ Ano's scroll pinged again, her eyes glancing over to see Niro hard at work doing nothing behind the bar.

' _You wanna get Kit drunk?'_ she asked in response.

' _It'd be better than this.'_

She followed his gesture and looked around, finding most of the bar's attention centered on their table.

She didn't mind that.

"Ouch! Alright!" Dante said as his eyes returned to normal, Inuba's teeth sinking in deeper, "I get it. If you're gonna keep doing that, can you at least take it easy?"

A muffled "sorry" slipped out now as she switched to playful nibbling, trying to apologize for biting too hard while her fox tail whipped about.

"I mean… biting can be pretty kinky. We've tried it. But, I don't see the appeal," Anoel commented, resting her head against Ly's shoulder now as she looked at the three across from her.

Beneath the table, she silently slipped her hand into Ly's grasp and squeezed it, glancing up with an apologetic gaze for the girl.

"You finally remembered I was sat here? How considerate," murmured the blonde as she took a sip from her bottomless drink.

Anoel felt a pang of genuine guilt as she leaned up and brought her lips close to Lylac's ear, making an almost inaudible response, "I can make up for it, if you'll let me."

"Depends on how busy you are," Ly responded in an even volume.

"I'll find a workaround in my schedule. Just for you," Anoel returned, "I can make it an all-day thing."

A small smile crossed Ly's lips, "Do you promise?"

Anoel hummed in affirmation as she lightly nipped the edge of Ly's ear, "Promise."

Elisia suddenly cleared her throat just ahead of them, "So… what brings you here handsome?" she said, looking Dante's way.

"I needed a drink, so I drove down here for one. Then I felt all of you clustered up in here, felt this one's aura signature spike a little…" he said nodding towards Inuba, "Then I saw you trying to kiss her. So… can I assume this was _your_ harebrained scheme to bring her here?"

"Caught me red-handed officer. Wanna cuff me just for safety?" the rabbit faunus asked, her arms extending toward him with a rather sly smile.

"Not in the slightest. Why'd you come here with her?"

"Girls night out. Hence why it's us girls here only until you showed up."

"We're actually innocent in this mess," Anoel commented lightly, " _She_ joined _us_."

"Right…" he said glancing over them all, now finally noticing the new face amongst them he'd never seen before, "Who are you again?"

"Wouldn't you like to know," Ly responded evenly.

"I always love to know," Anoel slipped in.

"Of course you do," Ly retorted, "but you know more than just my name…"

"True… I know your favorite position…" Anoel said with a smile.

"Okay," Dante said quickly interrupting, "I asked for a name, not how you get kinky with each other. Do us the honors? Please?"

"Very well, since you're the only one that's _actually_ taken the time to ask that question, my name is Lylac."

Anoel leaned her head back against Ly's shoulder as she hugged the thief's arm with her own, "I like to call her Ly."

"Can I call her that?" Dante asked.

"No. She's mine." Anoel's hold only grew more protective at that.

"Alright. Keep her then. You said that as if I actually wanted her or something."

"I'm just being careful. It's hard not to want her," Ano responded earnestly, getting a blush out of the girl wrapped in her arms.

"In your case maybe. Either way, not interested."

They all heard a happy giggle from the kitsune at the table as she finally released her hold on Dante's arm, plopping her head into his lap to make herself comfortable.

A single tail flicked happily about in slow motions against the booth as she nuzzled her cheek into his leg.

"I swear… Sometimes I don't know which one of us is the actual devil…" Dante muttered.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ly asked with a slightly defensive tone.

"Figure of speech in a sense. That, and it was part of a nickname I used to have."

"Nicknames aren't the same as titles, Dante," Anoel corrected.

"Yeah, well, it's not one I like too much. Or wanted for that matter. It's easy to make people afraid of you. It's a lot harder to make them smile when you're present. Personally, I'd prefer people smiling rather than running."

"Were you demonized or something? I don't know you, but I feel like that was the case," Ly spoke curiously.

"Well… Sort of if I think about it. Don't really know what people were afraid of most though. The person, or the power. Or maybe even both. Who knows?"

"There's a lot of things people are afraid of…" Anoel sighed quietly. She'd had her fair share of life living in direct relation to that, her life having been spent at Niro's side for almost its full entirety.

"Sorry, but I think people would be more likely to run from a Devil rather than a flaming bird."

Anoel couldn't help but breathe out softly and turn away, "I wasn't talking about me."

"Huntsmen are living proof that there's always someone stupid enough to take that devil on…" Ly stated.

Anoel's gaze tracked back to the hand she was holding, fingers lightly squeezing against her own as she looked to Ly.

Someone stupid enough, huh? There was… resentment, hidden in that.

Ly sighed before lightly grasping at her glass, swirling the glowing amber liquid around before slowly bringing it to her lips to take a sip.

But before the rim of the glass could touch her mouth she froze, her eyes suddenly widening as she dropped the glass.

" _No_ …"

Fragments of glass scattered across the wooden floorboards underneath the table, its contents spilling in between the cracks as her fingers shook.

Slowly, her head turned to glance at a table across the room, her entire body beginning to tremble.

It was… the first time Anoel's felt an overwhelming surge of fear course through the girl at her side. Ly was a lot of things to her, but one thing she hated seeing in anyone she ever cared about…

Was fear.

She was terrified, and Anoel's gaze slowly tracked toward the table Ly's eyes turned to, ignoring the seeping liquid pooling across the tabletop in front of them.

A woman silently gazed back at them, sitting alone at the back of her own booth. The burning light of a cigarette illuminated her face for just a passing second.

And even from this distance, Anoel could see the traces of a small smile curling across the woman's face.

* * *

 **A bit of a chaotic chapter, a long one too, so hopefully you enjoyed the clash that happens when us three throw ourselves into a scene to lead up to a singular event.**

 **The introduction of Ly and Ray's antagonist.**

 **In any case, next chapter will cover the woman, and will also bring in some more interactions between Anoel and Niro. I want them to interact more directly.**

 **Hopefully the scroll messages were a nice little touch to enforce their interactions a bit more.**

 **I do have one thing to mention. Could you imagine how terrifying it would be to fight at the peak of your potential against someone controlling every tiny moment of the battle? *pets Kit* rest, kitsune. You deserve it.**

 **Thoughts on the chapter?**

 **Anyway, sorry for the long delay on the chapter. Been writing for Flame and haven't been too motivated to write due to the weightedness of college assignments/early midterms.**

 **For now,** _ **Favorite**_ **and** _ **Follow**_ **.**

 **I look forward to seeing** _ **REVIEWS**_ **for this. You'll be introduced to a LOT of concepts of mine. Feel free to give me your thoughts.**

 **Cya XP**


	36. Quinn

Rogue Huntsman

Quinn

«»

The woman pushed herself to her feet, stubbing out her cigarette before picking up her drink. With each step she made toward the booth, Ly's body flickered, her semblance wanting to activate involuntarily.

"Six years…" A cold, unfeeling voice spoke, hardly even muffled by the chatter of the bar, "Impressive."

She passed another table, plucking a chair from underneath some poor patron as she approached.

Ly's muscles tensed, hand clenching in Anoel's own with a terrified shake.

She was eager to run.

"Bet you thought you'd seen the last of me, didn't you?"

Lylac couldn't move, and yet every instinct told her to run as far away as she could.

When the woman reached their booth, she laid the chair backwards, sitting on it with her legs at either side of the backrest and resting her forearms against it.

Her dead, gray eyes never left Ly's own.

"I think it's about time we… _caught up._ "

Anoel could tell just from the cold twitch in Ly's fingers that she wanted to be anywhere but here, and what was worse, the info-broker could tell this woman was digging up buried memories.

 _Repressed_ memories.

"Sorry hun," Anoel responded, the first voice to return fire as she eased up in the booth and tugged Ly toward her, away from the woman.

With a quick step, she swapped seats with the thief, nudging her over just enough to rest her in the seat she'd just had herself before slipping her left hand into the comfort of Ly's right.

"But who might you be?" Anoel asked simply, glancing toward the woman claiming a seat at their booth with feigned attention.

Her real attention was solely, and entirely, on Ly.

"A lot of people have asked that question, few know the answer," the woman replied, temporarily switching her gaze, "the one you seem to be fond of right there, is one of that very small handful."

The glass she held in her left hand touched her lips as she finished her drink, letting it slowly rest on the table before interlocking her fingers.

"After all, she was partially responsible for bringing that number down."

Anoel knew who played the other part of that partial responsibility, unfortunately, "Seems like you take great care in making sure only a select few know your name. There a reason why?"

"Those that do find out often find themselves flayed alive. No witnesses, no security footage, not even a note," the woman replied, "There _is_ a reason, and I'm sure you're just _dying_ to find out, but I have no business with the head of Vale's info network."

Anoel hummed proudly in response to that, if only to fill the silence, "So, you know of me. I'm afraid to say that I don't know you though… Would I get flayed alive too if I happened to make a few guesses about you?"

" _Quinn…_ " Ly breathed, almost inaudibly, her fearful cerulean eyes staring fervently at the woman.

A smirk crossed the lips of the woman as her gaze returned to the blonde thief, "I see your memory hasn't decayed, well done."

Ano's eyes turned back to Ly for a moment, eyes taking back in the flushing of her skin and the cold sheen to her heat signature...

"Though, you still have that annoying tendency to spoil the fun… such a shame."

Despite Quinn's words, Anoel kept her eyes locked on Ly's, flicking them for just a moment to the door with a message in the gaze upon its return, 'We can leave, if you want.'

The phoenix's vision followed a slight twitch, and despite her eyes still remaining on Ly's own, she watched Ly's left hand hover over her revolver, ready… but Ano knew Ly couldn't bring herself to draw it.

Not out of reluctance… but intimidation.

And fear.

"Speaking of which…" started Dante as he placed his hand on the table, "You're starting to spoil our night. So do you mind?"

Quinn turned to face the white-haired boy, raising an eyebrow inquisitively, but her eyes still held the same level of disinterest as before, "Oh, and I suppose you expect me to _apologize_ , do you?"

"Mmmmm… It might count if you get down on both knees and say sorry a few dozen times."

Anoel gave a light hum as she glanced to Dante across the table, then to Quinn, "A man who's quick to ask women to get on their knees. Normally I'd apologize for that, but… I do need you to leave if you don't have any business with us."

"I only said I had no business with you, info-broker, I didn't say I had no business with _her_ …" Quinn's eyes flicked back toward Lylac, who subtly flinched out of intimidation.

Anoel's interlaced grasp with the thief's hand only tightened in response to that.

"You've done a good job of evading the information networks for quite some time, this comes as no surprise, given what I taught you," Quinn paused, inhaling slowly through her nose, "but to hide from me? That's certainly worth some credit."

"Some people just want to relax, hun. Nothing wrong with that," Anoel replied, nodding her head toward the door, "But I'm the only one conducting any business today. If you want Ly, you'll have to come by another time."

Quinn nodded, her black officer's cap staying firmly on her head, "You're right, some people do need to relax, however, there comes a time where we need to get back to work. Unfortunately, dear Lylac, you exhausted your usefulness a long time ago. Your bastard cousin however… he and I still have to bury a few hatchets, wouldn't you agree?"

Ly's eyes widened as she shook her head, "N-no! Please!"

An immediate bright flash of memories and images swept through the still air, Anoel's breath catching in her throat as she saw a shattering explosion… and sensed the overwhelming smell and bitter taste of gunpowder.

 _Ray… What did you do…?_

"Annnd I'm gonna stop you there," started Dante as he raised up his hand, "Cousins and hatchets, oh my. Sounds like a good Sunday morning soap opera. I smell ratings through the roof. Unfortunately, I'm not one for soaps, so you know, there's the door," he said, waving his hand toward it.

"Your comic relief is annoying. Clearly, you do not understand the situation," Quinn deadpanned, eyes firmly locked on Ly's, "but since you're all so eager for me to leave, I'll just say this; No matter how deep of a hole you throw him into, Lylac, no matter how dark and hostile it is, I _will_ find Ray, and when I do, I'll remind him _exactly_ who I am."

A stray wing had slipped down out of sight from Anoel's jacket, wrapping tightly around Ly's waist beneath the table to feel her trembling in her seat.

"Oh, now I see!" said Dante in mock realization as he bopped the bottom of his fist against his palm, "This is about Ray. See, now I have to take you a bit more seriously." His attention quickly turned to Niro, "Hey, it's alright, right? So long as there's no mess?"

"If she breaks you first," Niro replied, "I'm fine with there being a mess."

"Heh… Got it boss," Dante replied with a smirk, snapping his fingers with a brief "Tadaaaa!"

About eight or so longswords of white and black aura suddenly phased into existence, each of them surrounding Quinn from different angles around her.

"Say the word boss-lady, and she's gone. You know, either sense of the word 'gone'."

Anoel's attention was more on Ly than it was on Dante and Quinn, but she glanced back over and frowned, "Those aren't exactly a threat to her…"

"How come?"

"Congratulations, you just wasted Aura creating _toys_ ," Quinn stated as she stood from her chair, her eyes glancing to the sword closest to her as her fingers wrapped around the razor-sharp blade, "you also need to work on your craftsmanship."

With a light squeeze, the blade shattered, disintegrating as she approached the door with burning amber eyes.

"I'll see you around."

The door slowly closed behind her as she left, leaving nothing in her wake but an empty glass, a misplaced chair, and a burnt out cigarette.

"Nullification or absorption, huh? Interesting…" Dante said as he snapped his fingers again, making the swords vanish out of the air.

"You have no idea…" Anoel muttered in a whisper, watching the woman go.

"So, who was the walking, talking shark?" asked Elisia as one of her rabbit ears flicked downwards, toward the empty chair by their booth.

Lylac held her head in her hands, staring blankly at the floor as she murmured to herself. Distress didn't even come close to what she was going through.

And it was clear from that touch alone that this woman was someone who left one of the deepest mental scars in Ly over her entire life.

However long that may have been, Anoel had no idea.

"Excuse us," Anoel said simply to the other three, sliding herself out of the booth while tugging Ly with her, "We'll only be a minute."

When Ly's own legs had reached the end of the booth, Anoel leaned forward to support the girl while resting her cheek lightly against Lylac's own, lowering her voice into a murmur.

"Can you walk?"

Slowly, Ly began to nod as she found her feet, her entire body numb from fear alone.

Anoel knew how numb the girl was, so she wasn't so sure about Ly's response. But she slowly pulled the thief to her feet and kept her arm and wing wrapped around Lylac's waist for support.

"Feel free to order a round of drinks while you wait," Anoel commented quietly to Dante and Elisia, eyes roaming over Inuba as she passed them with Ly at her side.

The two worked their way quietly to the back of the bar, Anoel pushing the door open to the women's bathroom and guiding Ly inside with her.

With the polished room free of heat signatures, Ano's eyes traced over the dark wood walls and dark gray stone-tiled floor to Ly, a dreading concern deep inside her gaze.

Tears were welling up in the corners of Ly's eyes, and as Anoel noticed them, the first were already starting to fall.

"I need you to be honest with me," Anoel spoke quietly, a soft sob racking Ly's frame just before the phoenix wrapped her in a tight embrace, lowering her voice even further, "How dangerous is she?"

Ly sobbed once more before replying, "She-" Lylac's throat closed in a pause, swallowing once, "She'll kill you for standing in her way…"

"She can try," Anoel replied softly, but she could _feel_ the graveness and desperation in Ly's tone, "Would she enter Beacon for Ray?"

"M-more than likely," Ly's voice held no inflection to it, she was so emotionally torn that she had no mental capacity to express herself as she usually would, "she fears nothing, fears no one… he-"

She paused as another sob broke through her shattered shell.

"H-he wouldn't be able to beat her…"

Anoel sighed. She knew he'd try to. And if this was the case…

He'd lose for sure.

Ly turned her head to face Anoel directly, tear-filled eyes staring at her with a veil of desperation, "Which is why he can't know she's here, I-I hate to beg you for anything but… _P-please_ Anoel…"

Her hands grasped at the phoenix's jacket as her voice broke.

" _Don't_ let him fight her."

"I won't," Ano replied, closing her eyes as she rested her forehead against Ly's own, her delicate brow furrowing as she met the girl's gaze, " _We_ won't. What do you want to do? I'm on board with anything. I got a slight read on her, but not enough to know what she's capable of. I… I need you to tell me everything you can."

Lylac rolled up the sleeves of her coat, revealing the scars on her arms, "I lied to you about these… they- they weren't accidents..."

Anoel's eyes flicked down to the scars she always kissed, but that gaze soon closed as she sighed, "They were from _her_ … weren't they…?"

The phoenix's eyes opened to catch Ly's tiny nod, the response drilling a sense of sorrow and remorse into Anoel's being.

 _I should've been able to see that…_ "How far back?" Anoel asked softly, wanting to know how long Quinn's been doing this to her.

" _Years…_ "

Anoel's voice grew even softer as she rested her head back into Ly's shoulder, "How many…?"

"I-I can't remember… five… six… _too many…_ " her voice was barely audible, just over a whisper.

The response only tightened Anoel's hold on the girl, "We need to do something. I don't want you staying in your apartment right now, not alone. How easy would it be to pull Ray out of Beacon?"

"N-not easy… he's hellbent on that piece…"

"It won't be for too long… I'm sure we can find a way to force him away for a short while," Anoel replied, taking a deep breath before continuing, "She said she only wanted Ray, not you. But I want to stay with you for the time being, wherever you want to be. Especially while she's in town."

Anoel's eyes opened as she leveled a careful gaze back on Lylac's own.

"I assume she already knows where Ray is, so we need to work fast. Then we need to find a place to lay low while we deal with this. Do you think she'll go after him right away?"

"I-it's been years since we last saw her, she'll be onto us the moment we do something," Ly replied quickly, the panic in her voice evident, "she'll find him, I know she will, but…"

Anoel stayed quiet, letting Ly pull herself together just a tiny bit to speak. Even if Ano knew it wouldn't last into the night.

"I can't drag you and Niro into problems of my own… not now…" she whispered, "Quinn is more dangerous than you realize… and that _scares_ me…"

"Lylac, I promised you that I'd be there for you whenever you're in danger," Anoel met Ly's gaze again, irises melting into dark green with specks of white and pink breaking through, "I'm not about to let you try to deal with this alone… not with how dangerous she is. And… not with what she's already done to you. I care about you too much to let something like that go."

"I know… but… with what's surfaced with Niro's father, I don't think he'll make time for us." Doubt shrouded Ly's softly spoken words as she shook her head.

"I can make him," Anoel muttered back, keeping her eyes locked with Ly's.

Lylac's eyes trailed down to the floor, their dark blue irises hinting at the further recession into her shell, "It doesn't feel right… I can't let him solve my problems any more than you…"

"This affects all of us… and I'm afraid I already made it my problem too by the way I interacted with her. I doubt she's very keen on an info-broker knowing her by name," Anoel let a breath leave her lips as she tried to keep Ly together in her arms, "He may not _help_ , but I can get him to at least care. She's hurt you and Ray enough…"

"Even with your help, I still don't think it's enough… she trapped both of us in an endless cycle of _grueling_ tasks. Reinforcing loyalty with fear… there's so many reasons why I couldn't tell you…"

"I know… Don't feel sorry about not telling me," Anoel brought Ly's head into her shoulder as she threaded her fingers through her hair, eyes glancing to the black marble vanity and large mirror just behind them, "I don't blame you… not for any of this."

The phoenix let out another light sigh as she glanced to the dark wood door, almost regretting what she was about to say.

"You may not like this… I don't even like this… But I know we'll need the help," Ano closed her eyes, resigning herself to her next words, "There's at least one person at that table that I know can help us… and he won't get hurt doing it."

" _No_ … Anoel… The last thing we need is more people getting drag-"

"Then we can face her on our own. I'm with you in this no matter what you say. There's no turning me away. But… I know we aren't enough. You know this…"

"No one has to get involved if we leave…"

"Ray would never be able to complete his weapon if we leave…" Anoel muttered, "He won't stay away forever. That's the last piece he has that can connect him to his father."

Lylac turned her anxious gaze back to Anoel, "I don't have a choice, do I?"

Anoel shook her head at that, "It's Quinn… there isn't a choice in anything."

"Then why don't we get everyone in?" Ly muttered to herself as her left hand found its way to her pocket.

"Only anyone who can help…" Anoel said.

"Then I need to call my foster brother…"

* * *

"I'm telling you, that's exactly the case!" Elisia emphasized.

"No it's not!" Dante said before turning to Niro, "Dude, back me up here."

"It's mostly his looks, but it helps that he smells like a fish dipped in pheromones," Niro replied casually, cleaning a stray glass.

"See? Even he agrees!" Elisia exclaimed.

"Right, like he's a reliable and totally unbiased judge."

"Alright, how about this hot stuff?" Elisia started as she leaned in closer to Dante, "Next time we go out somewhere, we're going to find a bar that does one of those speed dating events. And I bet you right now you're going to get over twenty phone numbers. Maybe. But more than anything I bet you they'll be staring at you all like 'Oooo! He's so dreamy!' the entire time."

"You're just saying that," Dante replied, taking a large sip of his drink.

"Am I?" Elisia questioned with a wide grin.

"Unfortunately," Niro interjected, setting a third glass onto the shelf behind him, "I catch even guys gawking at him all the time too. So, she's right."

That definitely made Dante shiver and twitch with growing discomfort.

By the time Dante set back down his glass, the bathroom door at the back of the room opened and Anoel came out first, Ly trailing just behind her.

The phoenix's eyes met Niro's as she passed the few back tables lining the walls, their little talk after tonight now going to be much longer after what just happened…

And he seemed to recognize that fact too. At least he was willing.

Anoel eventually reached the table again, stepping aside to let Ly in first as she glanced to the other three already there, "Been talking about panty-dropping good looks while I was gone?"

"You know me so well," Dante cheekily replied, "Asking if she's alright is… well… pointless. But still, what was all that?"

Ly had slid silently into the booth with her gaze on the table, Anoel glancing to her for just a moment before sliding in after her and keeping close to her side.

"We all have our demons, honey… There's no need to ask about them. But… there _is_ something you can do, if you're willing," Anoel said.

"Always willing and able," he returned, taking another large sip and placing his empty glass down on the table, "What would you have me do?"

"Whatever Ly asks of us…" Anoel spoke quietly, her tone turning serious for once, "As much as I hate to admit it, we can't handle Quinn on our own. So I'm asking for the both of us here on whether or not you're willing to help… even if it puts you and the people you care about in harm's way."

"My people can take care of themselves."

A small whine emerged from Inuba, currently attempting to shake off a powerful headache.

"For the most part."

"Then I suppose that's a yes…" Anoel drifted her gaze back to Ly, dropping her hand down to find Lylac's own again before glancing to Dante, "Did you order us drinks?"

"Yup." He slid a few glasses over, "Figured you'd need it after that."

Ly's broken glass was nowhere to be seen, which was good at least.

"More than you know," Anoel replied, taking the glasses and giving Lylac one of them, "Niro's probably going to keep yours topped off for the next month, so just take it easy… if you can."

Ly just took hers with numb fingers, a blank unresponsiveness still in her eyes.

The phoenix sighed and took a slow sip of her own glass, half the Lyra getting downed out of thirst and stress alone before she set it back onto the table.

"I… think this goes without saying," Anoel muttered out, her eyes still a little rattled despite her casual demeanor, "but don't take this woman lightly. None of us can risk doing that right now."

"Wouldn't dream of it. After that little 'magic trick' of hers, I've been racking my brain for what to do about her."

"Always the thinker this one," the rabbit faunus next to him declared as she rolled her eyes.

"Right, because we can definitely just headbutt each other until she dies. Good plan."

"We'll need some sort of plan eventually… but…" Anoel's eyes leveled on Ly again, watching a brief moment of her downing another large portion of her refilling glass, "We can't formulate it yet. Not until the shock of what happened goes away…"

The phoenix brought her eyes back across the table again to level with Dante's.

"I already know that you've met Ray before, and I know how stubborn he seems. But… he can't know about Quinn. None of you can tell him about her."

"Lips about this matter are permanently sealed. But… there is one thing I need to know before we can even get started," the immortal said, leveling a serious gaze at Anoel.

Anoel took another sip of her drink as she grazed the rim of her glass against her bottom lip, "Name it."

"What's the end goal we're going for here? Capture? Or erasure?" he asked without hesitation in his tone.

The phoenix's gaze switched to Ly after being asked that, Anoel slowly setting down her glass as she watched the girl continuously try to drown away what just happened.

There was only really one way to do this…

"We… have to find a permanent solution, whatever it is. I don't want her coming back into Lylac's life… not again," the info-broker spoke softly.

"Kill her…" Lylac murmured after setting her glass down to refill.

"It might be pointless to ask, but are you sur-?"

Glowing blue eyes shot up to meet Dante's, "Delete her from existence."

Dante chuckled softly to himself, "Then it's settled."

"Settled…" Anoel glanced over, finding the harshness in Ly's eyes and knowing how much she's always been against killing in its entirety, "We'll do whatever it takes."

"Talk about killing people, huh? Sounds like fun!" Elisia said.

"You really are a sadist, aren't you?"

"Only Monday's through Friday's," she spoke with a wink, earning an eye roll from Dante.

"What about you? Are you going to keep quiet about this?" Dante asked out of seriousness.

"And if I don't? Are you going to kidnap me and tie me up somewhere?"

"Not in this lifetime. Or any."

"An hour ago I would've taken you up on an offer like that," Anoel interjected, eyeing Elisia across the table before finishing off her drink.

"Don't encourage her."

"Honey, I love encouraging people," Ano replied, setting down her empty glass before turning her gaze back to Ly, "We can leave whenever you're ready."

"I'm ready to leave now," Ly replied in a low tone.

"Then we're leaving," Anoel replied, glancing to Dante and Elisia across the table with a small nod, "We'll… see you when we need you."

"You know where I am. And in case you can't reach me…" Dantes fingers pulled up a small holographic square that, when he tapped it, expanded into a large display with a generated code, "Call at any hour of the day."

Anoel withdrew her own black scroll to scan the code, storing his contact info into her contacts as her other hand lightly pulled Lylac from the booth, "I'll keep that in mind."

Her eyes once again switched back to Ly's, keeping careful watch of her movements as she slid out of the booth.

"Think you can stay conscious for long enough to walk back?" Ano asked, Ly nodding lightly in response to that, "Okay… we'll see the rest of you later, then."

"Stay safe."

The info-broker nodded to that, pulling Ly to her feet before turning her eyes to Niro behind the bar. She gave him an apologetic smile, letting him know they couldn't meet as soon as he wanted to.

' _I'll just see you on her balcony.'_ He messaged, the letters catching Anoel's eye before pocketing her scroll and nodding again.

They had a lot to talk about…

' _I'll be keeping a lookout around you on your way back too. Just get her home.'_

The followup message was an unexpected courtesy, but Anoel smiled thankfully at it as she led their way to the door, _'Thank you.'_

They pushed their way out into the cold night soon after, the air drawing thin in its cloudless visage and shattered sky.

It only seemed to grow colder the further they got from Niro's bar.

* * *

 **Anoel's never dropped her playfulness before, let along the fronts she puts up for just about everyone. This was a bit of a defining moment for her and Ly here, hopefully its impact holds as the chapters progress.**

 **Meet Quinn, HydraFlow's main antagonist for his perspective of the story. A brutal woman with an even more violent past… one that forced Ly and Ray into helping her with at very young ages.**

 **A lot of misfortune just aligned, so let's see how thing's will start unfolding as the personal plots go on. Niro and Anoel need to have a little chat next chapter.**

 **They actually do have a bit to talk about, especially with what Niro found out about Kitsuki's own past and what happened during initiation. Her original partner died... he knows that wasn't an accident. But I wonder if Anoel can get him to help.**

 **For now,** _ **Favorite**_ **and** _ **Follow**_ **.**

 **I look forward to seeing** _ **REVIEWS**_ **for this. You'll be introduced to a LOT of concepts of mine. Feel free to give me your thoughts.**

 **Cya XP**


	37. Lightless

Rogue Huntsman

Lightless

«»

Anoel came out of a glide down to a gentle landing, heeled boots lightly tapping the marble tiles of Ly's apartment balcony as the woman herself lay passed out in the phoenix's arms.

Her head was kept protectively leaned against the top of Ano's chest, her arms wrapped down supportively around Ly's back and beneath her bent legs.

Both of which were motionless in the steady breeze of the coastal apartment complex, the alcohol drowning out all of Ly's senses from what happened tonight at the bar.

It was all too much…

Anoel was just glad Ly was able to pass out, even if it was under the influence of heavy alcohol to do so.

"We'll talk after I lie her down…" Anoel spoke softly, knowing Niro could hear her, despite still being at the bar.

He had to be closing it up by now.

The ebony-haired woman brought Ly inside, sliding the glass door open to make her way toward her master bedroom.

She had an almost emotionless gaze simmering in her dull eyes, but it was one with far too much worry to be as cold as it looked in the dark, lightless room.

Ly's silken bed lay glistening in the moonlight as Anoel entered, moving toward the foot of it before working her way around to its edge.

She then softly laid Lylac down to rest, pushing the soft blanket aside as she placed her down with a gentleness she only really reserved for two people.

The only two girls she loved.

Anoel carefully removed Ly's high top sneakers, rolling off her thin socks a moment later. She set them aside before moving up to carefully remove the woman's coat, resting that on the nightstand nearby.

Ly's shirt was too tight to leave on in her sleep too, let alone wear a bra underneath of, so that came off soon after, resting in the same place the girl's coat did in a disheveled heap of thin fabric.

Anoel's gaze then turned back to Ly's partially curled up form.

She couldn't help but frown… noticing the numbness in Ly's face and the glisten of tear stains on her cheeks.

It hurt to see her like this.

Anoel eventually undid the clasp of Ly's jeans, fingers fumbling with a task she'd done effortlessly countless times before, hands being careful as she reached beneath the slender woman on the bed and worked the article of clothing over her curved hips.

With another gentle touch, she slid the rest of the tight fabric off Ly's long legs, dropping it to the ground.

Anoel would've stared, god she wanted to, like she always did, but she didn't even spare a glance this time to trace the curves she loved to indulge in.

Instead, she grabbed the silk blanket and pulled it up over Ly's curled up form, brushing it softly over the skin she knew was sensitive, but also knew was too numb and cold right now to notice its covering warmth.

She brought the hem of it up far enough to cover Ly's slender shoulder, tucking it up to the woman's neck to let her curl into its fabric just a little more.

"I'll join you once I can, love," Anoel whispered quietly, bending down to lightly brush Ly's stray hair out of her face.

She leaned in and placed a warm kiss on the woman's temple, holding it there for a long few seconds as she closed her eyes, before eventually pulling away.

They were dealt a losing hand…

She was going to play it till the end, even if she had to protect both Ly and Ray to do it.

Anoel's eyes finally tracked away from Ly's sleeping face to trail toward the bedroom's balcony, finding the silhouette of Niro standing alone near its railing.

His gaze was on the ocean just beyond the smaller balcony's reach, coat drifting in the wind, but she knew his attention wasn't on what was out there.

It was never on what he was looking at…

Anoel made her way out to him, closing the sliding glass panel with a silent seal before walking up to the railing beside him.

Her hair fluttered in the wind beneath the grasp of her hat, arms resting down on the railing in front of her as she leaned into it with a heavy, shallow breath leaving her lips in a noticeable evaporating mist.

One of her ankles found itself behind the heel of her other boot, her weight shifting itself onto just one of her legs as she looked out into the void of the ocean and the night skyline meeting its horizon.

"What did you want to talk about…?" she asked quietly.

"That can wait," Niro responded evenly, Anoel watching as his gloveless hand found its way to the railing as he let his glance fall to her shadowed eyes, "What do you plan to do about Quinn?"

Anoel's covered gaze only grew softer as she turned it back to the sea, "I don't know…"

He stayed quiet as she listened to the wind brushing up the side of the tall building, sifting through her hair as her heart's beats only felt more painful in her chest.

"If I tell Ray… he's going to challenge her. And if he dies…" her voice grew shaky as her breath caught in her throat, volume breaking down into a quiet whisper, "It'll _destroy_ Lylac…"

She closed her eyes as she took another shaky breath, working to calm herself. Even just a little bit.

"Not telling him puts him in just the same amount of danger, because we have no idea when Quinn will move in. We don't even know the full extent of her intentions," she closed her eyes again as she shook her head.

She hated this. She hated every part of this, not knowing what their enemy was going to do only made that dreadful feeling feel so much heavier.

"Ray's one of the few who can go against her… and has every reason to, with what she's done to Ly." Anoel's lightless eyes opened again, the corners of them glistening with silent tears in the shattered glow of the moon, "There's nothing I can do right now for them… All of my options will get me killed."

She could feel Niro's gaze leave her without noticing it go, her vision growing bleary in the wind as she let one of just a few tears fall over the railing in front of her.

They were in a bad spot, and she didn't know how to get them out of it right now.

"Are you willing to die for her?" Niro eventually asked, noticing her frame shake slightly in the breaching wind.

She could only breathe her response out in a shaky voice, but one of earnest deliverance.

Even if it was broken.

"Yes."

"Then you have everything it takes to figure something out," Niro said, his voice dropping in its emotionless inflection for a short, fleeting moment under a beat of her pained heart.

The smallest hint of worry resided in his voice, and it was enough to force a stifled sob out of Anoel as she took another deep breath to quell it.

"I won't step in for her, and if this is how you feel, I won't step in for you either," Niro continued, his eyes trailing back to her lowly dipped head as she stared down into the water, "You're smart, Anoel. It won't be easy, but I can put my life on the line in knowing you'll find a way out of this. For everyone involved."

Those words broke her. Another sob breaking out of her tightening throat as she closed her eyes.

She'd try.

God, she'd try…

But try was all she could do.

And that terrified her.

* * *

Half an hour had passed before she was able to speak, her voice hoarse but… calm again.

Even if it was still a little shaky.

"What did you find out about Kit?" Anoel asked, wiping the back of her wrist across her cheek as she stifled a shallow, hitched breath.

"Someone's been keeping tabs on her," Niro explained, moving his other hand to the railing this time as he waited a few slow seconds before continuing, "There were trace signatures of their energy inside the electrical disruption that occurred during initiation, when Kit's original partner got killed. Someone renowned for their fighting style and unparalleled skill in their home Kingdom."

Anoel slowly nodded, half her mind taking it in as she let an absent question fall out of her mouth, "Did they make a return during Kit's fight with you?"

The slightest tip of his hat caught her vision, "Felt the same signature enter the cameras watching the fight before it started, which was why I forced them out."

"That explains the barrier…"

"But not her skill," he continued, "She could keep up with me in a style of retaliation, focusing on dodging until I pushed her into a corner that forced her to fight. When she did, she capitalized on every opening I made for her. She's a good combatant, but she's scared of the person watching her."

"Scared enough to be on the run from them," Anoel slowly breathed out, lowing her hands back to the railing in front of her as she leaned against them.

"I don't know for how long, but the signature has trace amounts of a Lightning Affinity surging in its dominant reach," Niro explained, "I only know one person with an Affinity like that, and I just had a meeting with them before that fight."

"Sylvius Maestro…"

He nodded to that.

"That… could explain her paralyzing fear of lightning," Anoel sighed, letting her gaze fall back out onto the horizon, "I have a bad feeling about where this is going, Niro."

"You're right to feel that way," her partner replied, "He's infatuated with her. And not in the same way he's obsessed with my history."

That alone didn't sit well with Anoel, "Another powerful person to deal with."

"I can handle Sylvius while you focus on this, but that's only if he makes a move," Niro said, "I'm only working on speculation, nothing definitive."

"T-that's fine." Anoel's breath came out shallowly again, but it was finally starting to normalize now, "Just focus on what you need to focus on. I trust you… more than I trust myself, right now."

He paused for a moment in their conversation, something he didn't ordinarily do, "We'll both do our part. If you die, I'm ripping the one who took you clean in half."

She couldn't help but give a sad smile at that, "Is that your way of saying you care about me?"

That got him to pause again.

For a little longer this time.

"You've already known the answer to that, for a while now."

Her smile only grew sadder as she dipped her head, wanting to touch him, to hold him, but knowing none of that was anything he wanted right now.

Her next words came out in a quieter voice than the rest, but she knew he had other places to be, "You can go n-"

A gentle weight rested over her head as she felt her head dip beneath Niro's hand, her eyes widening in response to the pat before hearing his voice speak out from behind her.

"Take care, Ano."

As soon as his voice drifted off into the wind, the weight left her head.

And his presence left the balcony.

The girl couldn't help but let that sad smile remain on her lips as she took a shaky breath, pushing herself away from the railing to make her way back inside.

The room was still as dark as before, but she saw Ly had rolled over at some point during their outside conversation, facing inward toward the center of the bed now.

Anoel's gaze grew soft just looking at her, part of her starting to come to terms with something she should've addressed a long time ago.

But the rest of her still not knowing what to do with it.

She quietly took off her own jacket, hat following soon after as she slipped herself out of her own clothes to bring herself to the same state of apparel Ly was in beneath the covers.

Black wings unfurled from their wrapping around her slim midsection, the tips of them serving as a cupped support for her chest in the form of a makeshift bra as she padded her way around the bed and slid herself beneath the covers in front of Ly's sleeping form.

She rested her head down a moment later, silently watching Ly's softly breathing frame draped only in the fading glow of the moonlight threading through the curtains in a long few moments of thought.

She didn't even have to think about the single answer she gave to Niro earlier…

Anoel was living a life of self-sacrifice for the ones she loved, she never knew when she was taking it too far.

But even so… she knew, even now, that she was willing to die for the woman resting in front of her.

She shakily pushed herself closer to Ly to bring her forehead into the crook of her neck, gently running her fingers through Lylac's blonde hair. Her digits brushed through their lilac tips before the info-broker wrapped Ly's slim frame in the comfort of her arms and wings, entangling their legs beneath the caress and silken covers.

She hated to do it… but she had to tell Ray, for Ly's sake.

It was going to turn into a witch hunt, but it was their only shot at challenging her with even remotely stable odds of nobody dying.

And it was the only way to keep Ly out of it.

Anoel slowly closed her eyes as she held Lylac closely to her body, Ly's own arms numbly wrapping around the phoenix's lower back out of reflex.

It was all she could do… before inevitably breaking the promise she made to Ly just a few hours ago.

* * *

Arex was sitting up on her side of their shared bed, Kit curled up beneath the covers on her own side with her fox ears lightly flicking on her head.

The phoenix's gaze glanced over for the umpteenth time that night, the light of her scroll illuminating the soft contours of her face in the darkened room as she watched the peaceful expression on Kit's face.

It was adorable to her, seeing the kitsune sleeping calmly like that on her own.

Though, she figured it helped that she was next to her the whole time, acting as a slight heater for the girl.

They'd washed off the cool Dust coating for now, dark bruises on the mend and working on dissipating overnight.

Arex couldn't help but smile at thinking back to how happy Kit looked when the Dust was finally off, her tails darting about behind her in the mute's tight hug.

After a few more seconds, Arex went back to her black scroll, flicking through her blog as she thought about what to do next for her weekly project. She had a lot lined up, but she'd been focused on Ray's project as of late, only having it finished and delivered to him in the last few days.

Which left the upcoming days open for something new to work on, alongside waiting for payment from Ray's end.

Her eyes sifted over the couple servers she had for comment sections, each project release getting its own thread as she tabbed over to her latest alloy.

It was last week's project, but she was surprised to see the thread nearing three thousand posts, each with their own specific threads of replies to individual messages between readers.

"Circulated faster than I thought…" she murmured quietly, scrolling down through the long list of feedback, almost all of it positive.

It was already hitting the major weapons manufacturers and just now circulating through the smaller businesses across the Kingdoms. It was an alloy specifically designed for weaponry, something she used in her own weapon, but she wasn't expecting each of the leading companies to take it up so quickly without extensive testing.

They seemed to be doing that a lot more lately, especially with how closely they paid attention to her posts.

It didn't really bother her all too much, being scouted like that, but she knew she had to be careful with what she posted all together.

Especially if it was getting used so quickly in the blacksmithing market.

She eventually came across a popularly liked comment, the one message having about sixty replies from other users as she came to a quick stop to read it.

' _Think she'll ever do a face reveal?'_

Arex couldn't help but roll her eyes at the comment. They've been pressing for that lately, especially with Sparrow's rising popularity.

But usually these comments didn't get such high feedback. So, why did this one get so many replies…?

Her curiosity got the better of her as she opened up the reply thread to the message, skimming down through the long list of people trying to guess what she looked like.

Eye color, hair color, height, brea-

She quickly flicked passed the thirty or so comments in that category alone, the thread's scrolling coming to a gradual halt as she reached the bottom.

The last message was surprisingly short, which was the only reason she didn't switch away from the thread and actually read it.

Its user was… anonymous.

Most people didn't care for usernames, everyone following the unspoken trend of going under the title of anything they wanted.

Arex herself did that, taking the name 'Sparrow' early on in her site's upbringing. Something she could claim for herself and not have to worry about other people replicating.

There was a way to list yourself as anonymous, but it required bypassing the name creation step in creating an account, something few people were actually researched enough to actually do.

She'd managed to patch that bypass two weeks ago, so this user must've been around sometime before then.

Still… her eyes scanned slowly across the text beneath the user's hidden tag in a small gaze of confusion.

' _Working on it.'_

Working on… what?

She checked the timestamp and noticed it was posted about eight minutes ago.

A small breath left her lips as she felt her heartbeat speed up a bit, having a feeling that she'd have to deal with another hacker at some point soon.

She'd been hacked before… several times, actually. It was the only reason why she even had the skill that she did now in fending them off, something that sparked her amateur interest in the digital field altogether.

This just gave her the incentive to get better, and get better quickly.

But even so, several people have gotten through.

What's confused her was that none of her personal information had ever hit the scroll network.

Even with those breakthroughs.

Maybe she was lucky, or Sentinel's interest in her actually extended to either just testing her or dealing with those incidents of others getting through, she didn't know.

It could've even been Anoel for all she knew.

But what she knew now was that another hacker was going to try to break through her firewalls, and it was likely going to happen tonight.

She couldn't sleep now, not with a pulse like this and a threat like that.

A slightly shallower breath left her lips as she slipped her way out of the comforter, sliding her way quietly to the edge of the bed to lower her bare feet to the ground. She quickly reached down and pulled out her storage box, taking out her collapsed keyboard just inside before moving to grab a new pair of socks and her shoes.

With a quick glance back to Kitsuki on the bed, she frowned to herself and realized she'd be leaving her alone in here for a little while.

But she couldn't risk waking her up if she got frustrated.

She silently slipped the thin ankle socks on, throwing on a quick pair of black short-shorts and her sneakers before slipping quietly out of the room with her scroll, earbuds, and keyboard in hand.

Her eyes adjusted to the dim lights of the hallway for a moment as she looked around, finding the corridor empty at the late hour.

It was midnight, so she was glad nobody was up and about at this time, which didn't actually occur to her until now that she'd quickly thrown on something that she didn't ordinarily wear out in public.

She just grabbed the closest thing to her pajamas…

Which… was a very short pair of shorts…

She was incredibly glad she didn't walk out into anyone else… That… would've been too awkward.

She swiftly turned with a slight fan of her ebony hair, making her way toward the lounge and the stairwell door at the end of the hallway.

With a quick push of her way through and a light spring up the stairs, she made her way out onto the rooftop and peaked her head out to see that it was empty.

Black strands of hair scattered in the cool breeze as she reached a hand up, keeping most of it behind her ear as she looked up with a careful, bright gaze.

The area right above the door would be good…

She found a series of vertical piping built into the side of the protruding stairwell, finding a thin bolted rim running around the middles of each one.

With a quick step, she found a swift footing on the makeshift foothold and kicked upward, using her free hand to place her fingers lightly on the top edge of the upper roof to help vault her legs over the side.

The wind was slightly more prominent without anything obstructing it, but she wanted to be out of sight from the door and away from anyone else who might've liked late night journeys to the rooftop of the dormitory.

It was just easier for her this way… keeping away from social interaction.

With a quick glance around, she centered herself on the much smaller roof of the stairwell and slipped her wings out of her sweater. One of them reached down beneath her lightweight form and carefully laid itself flatly beneath her, giving her a soft area to lower herself down onto before crossing her legs beneath herself over her soft feathers.

Her scroll had been off the whole time, but when she glanced down, the screen was already sending her red alerts that someone had been prodding at her outermost firewall over the past thirty seconds.

She sighed as she expanded her scroll and set it down in front of her, her other wing helping to prop it up slightly as she plugged in her earbuds and rested them in her ears.

The keyboard went down next just as her music began to play, drowning out the cold sound of the whistling wind as her hair fluttered and swayed in its passing grip.

They didn't seem to have broken through any walls yet, which was good. But she didn't like how careful the attacker was being…

They were taking the time to get a read on every piece of her defensive grid before actually making a direct move.

Most assumed surprise was better than preparation, but that ultimately ran them into problems and helped her capitalize on their mistakes.

It… was always hardest when her opponent knew exactly what they were looking for…

She was forced to wait for now, to see what they'd do, but she couldn't help but feel her heartbeat quicken even further as she waited for something to happen.

It was actually starting to get stressful as her worry and excitement rose over the next minute, but it wasn't anywhere near as bad as what happened when Ray broke into her scroll.

So she managed to keep a calm enough mind to pay attention, counting the seconds that were ticking by before the sound of an alert and a red flashing notification brightened her screen.

"There you are…"

She quickly moved to where her first firewall just went down, hoping to try to block out wherever they were trying to path to next only for her eyes to widen as her next firewall went down as quickly as the first did.

 _They'd planned past the first firewall…?_

The third fell soon after as she had to backtrack, her fingers rapidly dashing across her keyboard as a wall of text flooded across her screen.

She was afraid her fourth firewall would fall as quickly as the others did… but it looked like the attacker didn't plan ahead to this point.

Most people didn't have as many arrays of firewalls as Arex did…

Which gave the girl enough time to quickly stop a few of the attempts made to get through, but that only gave away the fact that she was here to defend against the attacker's own moves.

More of her code was getting bypassed by the second, but she managed to at least stop the process in key moments of it almost breaking through.

They even attempted a memory overload to break some of the lines of code connected to that, but she was quick to switch her attention over to that and redirect the flow.

"Just give up…" Arex quietly whispered, eyes dashing across her screen as her fourth firewall finally broke down and the attacker got through.

She was running out of defenses, and with everything she was doing as quickly as she was doing it, she was starting to realize the attacker was better than she was at this.

Her heartbeat quickened even further as she realized she kept getting forced into a position where she had to backpedal, pressured further and further through her scroll's systems to eventually retreat into her next firewall.

T-they were good…

Arex's fifth firewall went red as it failed to hold the attacker back now too, the girl biting her lip as she drew on every single tiny piece of knowledge she had to try and counter the attacker's moves.

But… it was slowly becoming more and more apparent that…

It just wasn't enough.

The sixth went down just as Arex let out a frustrated breath, gaze narrowing as she worked to hammer out another line of code.

Eyes glued to her scroll's screen.

She didn't even notice the soft flicker in her outer firewalls, the momentary dispersion so small and fleeting that it was immediately passed off as a glitch in her own mind.

There was too much going on in her head to even care about that, her full focus centered on trying her absolute hardest to defend against something she knew she was ultimately going to fail against.

And that was quickly crumbling her drive to keep this much resistance up, the girl biting her lip harder now as her irises flicked across the screen in front of her.

Another firewall fell, frustrating her even more due to it falling faster than the last.

The next was already cracking when-

Arex's eyes widened as she watched something white filter into her vision from the very side of her screen.

Her fingers stalled as her breath got caught in her throat, her eyes dashing to the small female figure walking out toward the center of her screen from the righthand side.

A-a… 16-bit sprite?

H-how did that get there?

The sprite turned and appeared to glance to the winding wall of code behind it, placing a hand on its hip as it just stared.

A couple of seconds passed before it turned around, a dialogue box appearing just above it.

' _Wow… this is a mess, would you like me to clean it up for you?'_

Arex's voice was too caught in her throat to even respond, eyes too transfixed on the sprite itself as her mind mentally stuttered over its own thoughts.

W-who? H-how? W-what?

Arex didn't even know if the sprite could see her, but as the next firewall fell in the background under no resistance, she tinily nodded her head rapidly in desperation.

The sprite appeared to respond to Arex's small reply, nodding its head once before snapping its fingers.

A small, dispersing light flickered out from the sprite's hand as Arex followed the motion.

On the top of a screen, a flash of pixelated particles came into view as an object materialized and fell into the sprite's hands.

' _It seems you need a firewall.'_

"F-firewall…?" Arex finally managed to stutter out, eyes roaming over the 16-bit flamethrower that rested in the sprite's grasp.

A bright glow of fire flooded out from the sprite as it began to torch the lines of code with a stream of 16-bit flames, slowly snaking its way across the entire screen, save the small section the sprite 'stood in'.

Before Arex knew it… the flames died down and all that was left was her rebuilt array of firewalls.

The code reduced to just a few short lines.

As soon as Arex read the lines, the screen quickly changed back to her scroll's home screen, the sprite looking up at her apps now as Arex sat speechlessly staring.

T-the hacker just got…

Obliterated.

Confused eyes watched as the sprite pulled down one of her apps, opening up a new page in her notes to swiftly type out a set of coordinates.

' _The hacker lives here.'_

The sprite turned again as she seemed to smile back at Arex, the notes screen closing away and saving to go back to the home screen.

S-she… she was still speechless.

' _This was fun! See you around, Sparrow!'_

As the dialogue box appeared, so did a door on the lefthand side of the screen, and the sprite immediately began to walk toward it.

The small action only registering in Arex's mind once the sprite actually reached the door with its small strides.

"W-wait!" she quickly sputtered out.

But as she said that, the sprite disappeared through the door, a bright pixelated red heart flashing across the center of her screen as the door dissipated a moment later.

Arex's frame still felt tense for another few moments… struggling to even relax now before she finally forced herself to take a breath.

W-who was that…? She'd managed to catch a glimpse of a small symbol colored into the sprite's pixelated back, only just now recognizing its association.

"Sentinel…?"

The gold insignia was unmistakable… even in its 16-bit glory…

The phoenix quickly slammed her keyboard and scroll closed, pushing herself to her feet to move back to the edge of the risen roof.

She slipped over its ledge with a careful but rushed drop, landing softly on her sneakers right in front of the door before disappearing back inside the building.

Her mind was already rushing again by the time she stood in front of the door to RGDS's dorm, eyes staring up at its blank, imposing frame as her shoulders rose and fell with her shorter breathing.

She didn't want to knock, knowing it'd wake up some of the team that she didn't actually want to talk to. Not right now.

But she knew for a _fact_ that Ray was up at this time.

So with a quick bypass of the lock, she carefully turned the handle and lightly pushed the door open, peeking her head in first to avoid letting in too much light from the hall… and to make sure she wasn't walking in on anything.

She let her eyes scan across the dark room for a moment before glancing to an empty fourth bed on the far left, which was where she remembered to be Ray's.

Gone…?

Her eyes trailed further in to see a light coming from the bathroom, the girl's eyes only catching the sliver of light beneath the door just before it flicked off and the door… opened…

And out walked Ray… wearing nothing but a towel…

He froze as his glowing amethyst eyes met Arex's own, widening as he realized her head was peeking through the door frame, "What the f-"

"S-sorry!" Arex quickly whispered out, her eyes wide in alarm as she shot her gaze to the floor.

Her curiosity got the better of her and she didn't even think twice about her actions… She'd just casually broken her way into someone else's room late at night.

"I-I just had a question t-that… couldn't wait…" she muttered out, the door slowly closing as she tempted herself to just leave in embarrassment.

Ray sighed, muttering something to himself as he continued walking toward his bed.

"Well it _clearly_ couldn't wait until morning, so come in…"

Arex stopped herself from closing the door completely when she heard what he said, the girl carefully peeking her head in again to half-glance toward him, "I-it can wait until you get s-some clothes on."

"Just shut up and enter, Arex," he said as he sat on his bed.

She listened and made her way inside soon after, holding her arm tightly in her hand as her other occupied both pieces of her tech.

Her gaze was still down when she glanced at him, but she quickly averted it again when she met his eyes.

She didn't realize until now that… she had no real idea of how to actually word this.

Or word this at all…

"H-has… Sentinel ever… worked with…" she slowly started, her mind obviously having trouble coming up with some comprehensive set of words to go one after the other as she paused, eventually resigning herself to a soft sigh, "artificial intelligence?"

Ray's left eyebrow quirked, clearly indicating a sudden micro-interest in what she was saying.

Hesitantly, he slowly nodded in response.

"We've played around with it, yes."

Arex slowly nodded her head, biting her lip as she struggled to find how else to word this, "C-can it do anything without you knowing?"

This time Ray's eyes narrowed, "Yes…"

Arex only nodded silently again to that, "W-well… I just got hacked and… I think I just met her."

"God fucking dammit, G…"

Ray muttered to himself as his voice grew mumbled, rubbing his face with his hand as he reached over toward his bedside cabinet and grabbed his scroll.

"Less than 12 hours…" he continued, furiously tapping his scroll, "I _specifically_ told you not to get caught…"

"Caught?" Arex asked lightly, keeping the excited flutter in her tone down to a stifled minimum.

So he knew about her!

That was honestly more than Arex was expecting to find out.

Ray looked to Arex with a neutral gaze, "You may or may not have noticed my absence during your partner's fight with Niro, this was intentional."

She didn't notice, but she nodded anyway, "The AI…"

It suddenly dawned on her why he used the word 'caught'.

"You placed her in the school's system…" she slowly realized, letting the words leave quietly from her lips.

"I hardwired her into the CCT itself," Ray clarified, his focus having now returned to his scroll as he continued to fiddle with it.

"That's connected to every scroll tower on the planet…" Arex spoke to herself more than him. That was the center of all scroll connections across the grid, "How?"

Ray sighed, "I used a device I like to call a 'tether'. It bridges the connection between her central processing unit to whatever I plug it into. In this case, the servers located inside the CCT."

It… still wasn't an easy task. She guessed it helped that he was a student of the Academy. But what she got more out of that was the fact the AI had a central processing unit somewhere…

Which meant it was backed by a _massive_ power source if her actual infrastructure had to be physically built somewhere to contain her core.

Which… explained why she was so powerful…

"She… seemed nice, like she had a personality," Arex said, her grip growing tighter on her arm as she glanced to Ray still typing at his scroll, "Can she hear me?"

"She can hear everyone, and as for her personality? You have no idea."

"I… want to have an idea…" Arex admitted.

She couldn't get the words out when the AI stopped the hack, but now she was struggling to hold herself back from saying too much in her excitement.

"C-can I meet her again?" she asked, but she knew her hopes were far higher than she knew they should've been.

"What avatar did she use when she stopped the hack?" Ray asked, finally returning his attention toward Arex.

"It was 16-bit…" Arex responded, her fidgeting grip on her collapsed scroll and keyboard growing just a little tighter, not knowing if he'd let her.

Ray sighed, almost exasperated, "She's been playing that damn game again…"

He paused, tapping on his scroll a couple more times before setting it to the side.

"If you're going to say hello, G, you could at least have the decency to use your voice."

"She has a voice?" Arex asked, her own voice leaving her lips before she could even think to stop it.

Ray nodded, "Yep, and she loves hearing the sound of it, it would seem. Which is why I am _actively encouraging_ her to use it now."

Ray placed his scroll on his bed as four corners of it flipped open and four holographic projectors protruded from inside the device's frame.

A couple moments of silence passed before the projectors began to glow to life, slowly building a translucent frame of a young woman.

"Hello."

Arex locked up for a moment as the feminine voice spoke out into the quiet room, her eyes staring in a bashful yet clear intrigue, "H-hey. You… uh… left before I could say anything."

"My work was finished, there was no need for conversation," she replied curtly, tilting her head.

"C-can there be a need for conversation?" Arex asked lightly.

The AI's head tilted in the other direction as a question mark appeared hovering above her head, "Oh?"

Arex didn't want to straight up admit that she really wanted to talk with her… but she ended up straight up admitting that she really wanted to talk with her, "I… kind of… want to get to know you more."

"Why didn't you say so?!" she gleamed in response, smiling brightly as she spoke.

"You mind keeping it down? They're trying to sleep…" Ray murmured.

"W-we can take it elsewhere… if you trust me with her," Arex muttered quietly, glancing back to Ray for a moment before returning that gaze to the hologram.

Ray lifted the scroll on the bed between his thumb and fingers before handing it to Arex, "Lose this scroll and I'm cutting your payment."

"T-that's fine!" Arex responded quickly, lightly grabbing the scroll as she paused there for a moment, "I guess I'll be in the forge room. I don't really have the lien for my own holographic projector."

"Do as you see fit, I just want my scroll back," Ray replied, "whenever that may be…"

Arex nodded her head to that and quickly made her way to the a quick glance back to Ray, she silently left the room.

* * *

 **Meet... G, I guess? I'll just pretend the first scenes of this chapter never happened.**

 **You know, the ones where Anoel broke down for the first time since this story started and that the only reason why she was even remotely collected last chapter was for Ly's sake.**

 **But, yeah, I hope that went well.**

 **Things are getting layered on thick and there's a lot to do, so this'll be fun to see how it'll play out.**

 **I think this is the first, if not one of the few, to show Niro's perspective outside of his usual first-person perspective.**

 **That was to keep the center point of view on Anoel.**

 **You should know why.**

 **On a side note, I'm having increasingly more trouble holding myself back from shipping Kitsuki and Arex officially in the story...**

 **Yeah, we'll see how long I can hold out before that happens.**

 **They still don't have a ship name. Closest I have is White Flame, not sure yet.**

 **For now,** _ **Favorite**_ **and** _ **Follow**_ **.**

 **I look forward to seeing** _ **REVIEWS**_ **for this. You'll be introduced to a LOT of concepts of mine. Feel free to give me your thoughts.**

 **Cya XP**


	38. Guardian

Rogue Huntsman

Guardian

«»

Arex had completely forgotten about whatever her original plans were for the night. She was hardly really thinking about anything else other than this.

And to her embarrassment, she was only getting more excited as she looked down at the metallic blue scroll in her hand once she was out of Ray's room, legs on autopilot to take her across campus and to the forge room.

' _I would advise not making too much noise, approximately ninety percent of the student body is currently asleep.'_

Arex's eyes read the message with a small, questioning smile, "Wait, ten percent are awake?"

The girl slightly quickened her pace, not wanting to get pulled into any other social interactions while she's walking about.

Especially not… in these shorts… which she just realized she completely forgot about while talking with Ray.

' _You don't want to know what they're doing.'_

Arex's cheeks tinted red as she shook her head, "R-right… Don't tell me then."

It'd take a few minutes of walking to get to the side of campus with the forge room on it, so Arex wanted to fill the void of silence with at least a few questions.

One of which, she was actually dying to know the answer to.

"Do you have a name?"

' _I am GHOST, an acronym for the five protocols that comprise my core programming.'_

"Acronym?" Arex asked, trying to place what each letter stood for.

' _Guardian, Harbinger, Ordinance, Satellite, and Tracer.'_

That was… a long list, and it had an impressive coverage of… well… everything an AI can stand for. And since GHOST basically ran the center of Sentinel…

That made perfect sense.

"Well, it's nice to meet you, GHOST," Arex spoke lightly, entering the building she needed to in order to start making her way toward the forge room's doors.

' _Likewise, though I must ask. You currently have an accelerated heart rate, are you expectant of danger?'_

Arex blinked for a moment as she bit her lip, "I-I… guess I'm just excited?" She didn't exactly feel in danger, but she definitely didn't want to run into anyone while she was out and about.

' _I see. Is this your first time meeting an AI?'_

The phoenix could only give a tiny nod of the head to that.

' _I promise you it's not as bad as Ray makes it out to be.'_

"B-bad?" Arex asked, shaking her head as she thought for a moment, "I'm honestly glad you're talkative. It just means I can talk back just as much while I can."

' _Are you referring to your partner? I've heard that she's a little lacking in the word department.'_

"Kit? Oh, you have no idea…" Arex replied quietly, a soft smile splaying across her lips, "She's the only person I've ever seen who can compact an entire paragraph into a single glance."

' _I know someone who can do that, he's very expressive.'_

"Yeah?" Arex asked, swiping her way into the forge room doors with a satisfying decompression of sliding pistons before quickly ushering herself inside, "I wonder what'll happen if he and Kit had a conversation."

GHOST's hologram reappeared now that they were inside the forge, "It would certainly be interesting to analyze."

"It… would…" Arex took a moment to adjust to the fact that GHOST had already activated her usual forge station, projecting herself up onto its surface as the phoenix slowly started to make her way toward it again, "Do you have access to the entire system?"

GHOST nodded once with a smile, "I do. This forge was active 5 minutes ago."

Arex herself nodded to that, pulling her stool over to slide herself onto and rest her arms on the workstation, "I guess you already knew where I was going, so that makes sense."

She quietly rested down her collapsed scroll and keyboard, laying down Ray's scroll now too as she turned her attention to the hologram.

"How… much do you know about me? You mentioned that you knew of my partner and a little about her, so…" she trailed off, but the question got across.

GHOST pointed to her head and tapped her temple with her left index finger, "I share a conscious link with Ray's scroll and gather data according to his surroundings, even while he's asleep. What I know of you, your partner, and of your team is only what has been shown to me."

Arex didn't know how much that accounted for, but it must have been at least a little more than just one fact about her partner.

Probably far more than that, considering GHOST had access to the school's profile system too.

"Do you… work mainly from free will?" Arex asked as well, watching as the AI moved about on the workstation's large scroll, generating small objects here and there to interact with.

"I do, one of my most defining features is my disregard for the laws of robotics, I could technically kill you and not be punished for it," GHOST replied cheerily, kicking a holographic ball in the air and trying to see how many times she could keep it up, "I'm not going to though, just in case you got worried."

Yeah… yeah she got a little worried, "I-it's fine. I know about the laws of robotics, something I looked into early on."

Arex's next question was a little more hesitant to voice, but… with what GHOST just said, it brought it up to be slightly more relevant.

"W-why did you… step in? When I was getting hacked?"

GHOST stopped kicking her soccer ball, letting it fall and bounce off the side of the workstation to disappear, "You needed help, it wouldn't be very good of me to let you suffer."

"Wasn't that against what Ray ordered of you, though?" the phoenix asked softly, but it was a good question to ask. Could GHOST… go against orders like that? Even with free will?

"It was, yes. But you've long since established yourself as someone of interest to Sentinel. I'm almost certain that if I didn't help you, he would have," GHOST replied earnestly, nodding slightly.

"R-right," Arex trailed off, anything with Sentinel always trailing back to that excuse. Was she… really of that much interest to them?

The girl's eyes soon widened a bit as she quirked a delicate brow, turning her gaze back to GHOST's own.

"Would he…?" She… didn't exactly see Ray as the kind of person to do that.

"You'd be surprised with him. What you see isn't always what you get, for lack of a better term."

She guessed that was pretty fair, considering Niro was a walking example of that, "He just… didn't come across that way. Not to me, at least."

Arex's eyes watched as a few more objects materialized around GHOST, the AI seeming to like building a digital environment as she walked around.

"Do you know why Sparrow's of so much interest to Sentinel? I don't exactly have the best skills in coding. I'm more of a blacksmith with my tech, to be honest."

"You seem to be under the impression that Sentinel dedicates all of its resources into hacking," GHOST replied, speaking with a slight smile.

"I sorta figured most of it did, really. But after hearing about your five protocols… I'm starting to think there's a lot more to it than just that," Arex replied in a soft exhale, tucking a few stray strands of hair behind her ear.

"Oh, you have no idea. Not all of the members are even technologically versed."

That small fact shocked Arex a little, "With how many companies it takes down, I figured they'd all at least have that background knowledge. But I guess it can draw on specialty skills too, if it needs…"

Was that why they kept an eye on her?

"I'll let you in on a secret, each member of Sentinel is the best at what they specialise in, hacking, engineering, _forging_ , it's a collective group of talented individuals working in coalition to improve the world," GHOST whispered, but maintained an almost smug look in her eyes, "those who put their own selfish desires aside and focus on problems that affect everyone. That is the core foundation of what it takes to become a member."

Arex couldn't stop the small smile from curling across her lips, her eyes trailing down for a moment as she had an internal, embarrassingly gleeful exclamation that she was right about what Sentinel actually stood for.

It wasn't the cyber-terrorist group some made it out to be.

"I used to want to join it, but I never knew how. I guess it already has a forger though, which counts me out if it's sticking to the tightly knit organization like I think it does. Do you know if I've ever met that person?" Arex asked.

GHOST smiled, "Most likely."

Arex wasn't expecting an answer like that, "At Beacon, maybe?" Her social interactions only extended as far as the individuals who walked into her bakery and those she's done contracts for from her personal forge.

"There is only one member in Beacon at this moment, and Sentinel doesn't plan on more joining anytime soon."

"I sorta already figured that, and the one member would have to be Ray." The phoenix furrowed her brow again as she tried to think about everyone she's done contracts for.

It wouldn't make sense if the one who specialized in forging came to _her_ for something like that, especially if they could just make it themself.

Which left the bakery… but she quickly ruled that out. There were too many customers to try to scan through for there to be any hope of her getting a mental image of who that person was.

A chair materialized behind GHOST as the AI reached over and pulled it closer, taking a seat on the workstation as she crossed her legs and sat in an upright position.

"I'm surprised you haven't figured why we've been watching you in silence, it's pretty obvious when you think about it," she commented as she rested her head on her hand.

Arex knew she could be oblivious at times, but she couldn't help but still give a confused shake of the head in response to GHOST's comment, "I don't think it's as obvious as you say it is."

A small giggle was GHOST's initial response, "You said that you wanted to join Sentinel, did you ever consider _asking?_ "

Arex blinked for a moment as she turned her strayed attention back to GHOST, giving her a pathetically meek smile, "I-I… w-well… aside from the fact I didn't know anyone until now…"

She bit her lip as she struggled to get the words out, but it was fairly obvious what Arex was implying. Especially if GHOST knew what her social patterns looked like…

"I'm… not exactly the most social… of people…"

"And what makes you think that's a problem? Have you _met_ Ray?"

"I-I have. But he has leagues more confidence than I could ever have," Arex replied exasperatedly, her tone honest, "I just can't seek people out with the intent to ask something like that, especially if it's nothing more than a personal interest."

"We've been tracking your blog for years, Miss Arex. You never had to leave your room," GHOST replied softly, giving the phoenix a smile.

Arex's words got stuck in her throat as she flushed a little red at the embarrassment, those specific words not really clicking until now, "I-I mean… the blog wasn't really meant to be something to reach out to them. It was just something I started on a whim. I-it didn't feel right to use that medium for anything else, especially nothing that direct."

To Arex's fall, most times, was her inability to request for anything.

Even something as simple as that.

"You underestimate how deeply we investigate things, we've analyzed every block of code on your blog since day one, if you didn't want to publically announce that, you could have hidden it there," GHOST replied suggestively, crossing her legs the other way.

Arex's eyes darted away as she felt her back grow a little stiff, fingers grasping tightly at her arms as she shrunk a little in her stool, "I-I… didn't think of that…"

Her voice was more or less a squeak than anything else.

"Of course not, you weren't fully aware of the full scope of our interest in your abilities until tonight."

That didn't stop her from feeling as embarrassed as she was now, "I-I guess not. But what does that mean now? I… find it a little hard to believe you're only doing this to just talk tonight."

"If you didn't come to us, the only option we had was to come to you. You think me stopping that hack was for fun?" GHOST questioned.

"T-to be fair… Ray started it," Arex replied, glancing back to GHOST's eyes, "A-and to also be fair… you looked like you were having fun torching my code."

"Correction: I was torching _theirs_. They were using a method of hacking we wrote 4 years ago, a method of selectively brute forcing their way through key weaknesses in firewalls," GHOST spoke matter-of-factly, "something as predictably naive as that was nothing to extinguish."

Arex didn't really know what to think of that, "I-I guess I fall pretty low on the spectrum then, if something like that was better than what I could do against it."

"I've been analyzing your firewalls for a little while now, the problem isn't the firewalls themselves, it's how many you have. Like having multiple padlocks, all you need is the right key to open them," GHOST replied, exaggerating her point by creating a holographic padlock and opening it up with a tiny key, "It's better to have one firewall that can actively change itself to better resist attacks."

There was a time where Arex actually _tried_ that… but it didn't help that she was still an amateur, "I couldn't really ever figure out how to make something that advanced without constant maintenance due to it breaking in several areas."

GHOST hummed, "Have you tried using an ASAI?"

Arex gave another meek smile, "I've… never really looked into making an AI before, especially an Application Specific one. But… that'd solve my problem, and would make sure I didn't need to constantly try to defend against personal attackers all the time."

A text box suddenly appeared in front of GHOST mid-conversation, immediately drawing her attention to it as her eyebrows furrowed, "Well it looks like you're in luck…" she murmured as she read the message.

Another delicate brow rose as Arex looked to the notification, "W-with?"

"It would appear that Sentinel has authorized the use of the Guardian protocol for matters concerning your security, and in addition to that, they've given me full range of communication with you," GHOST responded, turning her gaze back up to Arex.

To say Arex was awestruck was… an understatement.

W-was that Ray's doing…?

He was the only one who knew she even had _contact_ with GHOST. She knew it was easy to probably tell if she was hacked again, _especially_ given how closely they monitor her site.

But… she'd been talking with GHOST ever since, at what point could they have known?

Unless they were monitoring the conversation?

"C-come again?" After all that thought and mental struggle, Arex could only squeak out two words.

And she didn't even do it right.

"You're now designated as a person of _significant interest -_ interesting choice of words - more now than ever considering you're one of the few outsiders that know of my existence," GHOST replied as she read out the message she had just received.

"S-significant interest?" Now she was just broken.

After a long few moments that were as short as just three seconds for GHOST, Arex's mouth finally snapped shut as she shook her head to try to clear her rushing thoughts.

"I-it makes sense if I know about your existence, it'd keep me quiet, but was it also because of the hacks?" Arex asked, her gaze looking a little meek again as she looked to the small holographic AI sitting in her digital chair.

Arex hadn't exactly had the best track record of fending off attackers… but she was getting better at it the more it happened.

It just… felt like it was happening a lot more often, lately.

"As technology progresses, so does the intensity of potential attacks. It would appear that while harmless on its own, the technology you have invented can easily be weaponized. This, as you can probably guess, is something Sentinel is strongly against."

GHOST replied as she dismissed the message, eyes glancing back up to Arex's own.

"Which is likely why they've decided to assign me to personally protect your files, especially your blueprints. Not to worry however, this will not affect your work in the slightest, but you should now be able to rest a little easier knowing that your stuff is being defended by one of the most advanced artificial intelligences on the entire planet."

"T-that would… help…" Arex managed to utter out, her mind still trying to wrap around the fact that GHOST was going to be in her scroll from this point forward, for however long this lasted, "C-can I ask you something?"

"Certainly."

"I-I know this is for my protection as much as it is for Sentinel's interests, but I don't really see a point in doing it if, when you end up leaving my scroll, it'll only just start up again." Arex dipped her chin a little as she let out a short sigh, "The hacks have been kind of a blessing as much as they've been a curse because I've been learning from them. I… won't really have a source for that anymore, not unless you set time aside to help me with that too."

"You're now one of a sparing 46 individuals with this level of protection. That is to say, you're not the only one to have asked this question," GHOST spoke in a serious tone as she regarded Arex with her eyes, "As I have stated, this will not affect your work, and rather than learning fast or dying as you try, I can give you the tools to learn how to defend yourself in a _safe_ environment, rather than a trial by fire."

"I-I'd… like that," Arex slowly breathed out, meeting the serious gaze with one of more intrigue and hope than actually noticeable seriousness from her end, "Are you able to interact directly with all those individuals?"

She almost sounded a little disappointed when she asked that, hoping the AI had some way to spread out its consciousness to do this for multiple people across several mediums.

"I am, but for your case, I am actively monitoring all of your devices should you require assistance, most of that number are completely unaware they're under Sentinel's protection."

"O-oh…" Now she was starting to feel a little _too_ special. She didn't know what else to say, other than that small, tiny, minuscule, pathetically instinctive response.

And, maybe one more.

"T-thank you?"

"I'm not the one you should be thanking, Miss Arex."

"R-ray then?" Arex asked instead.

An affirmative little nod was her answer.

"O-okay…" Arex nodded slowly in response to that, "I'll be sure to do that, once I can. I… don't really fancy walking into his dorm again so abruptly."

"If you're wondering, he's dressed now," GHOST replied with a smirk.

"I-It would've been weird if he wasn't…" Arex replied, but she still didn't exactly want to knock now either, "I think it can wait until morning, if he's around for that. What should I do with his scroll for now?"

"The Guardian protocol allows me to inhabit your scroll, and since that's not the only one he has, you're fine to keep hold of it until you next see him. I believe he intends to pay you for your work on his processors tomorrow, so then would be an opportune time to do so."

"T-that'll work then," the phoenix replied, letting her arms finally grow just _slightly_ more relaxed than they'd been the whole conversation, "Is there anything else I need to know about for this?"

"There is," the AI gave a small nod, "You mustn't tell anyone about me, or the Guardian protocol. Sentinel is very picky with its secrets, and everything you've been told tonight was solely for your ears only. So long as you agree to these terms, nothing will happen."

"With how much you've looked into me, I'm surprised you need to ask that," Arex said softly, knowing she wasn't one to let slip any kinds of secrets like this, not even ones Anoel's made her promise to keep.

"This includes your sister."

"I-I figured that…" Arex replied quickly, "She's… dangerous when she knows a lot about something."

The phoenix eventually let out another breath as she refocused, finalizing the offer with a short word.

"Deal."

* * *

Anoel woke up to the quiet sound of a soft whimper, feeling the girl she'd been cradling in her arms and wings shake coldly beneath the covers.

One bright eye opened as she pushed her cheek into the bed sheets, arching her back to stretch it for a moment before lifting her lax, drowsy head ever so slightly.

Ly was still out cold, curled up in Anoel's arms as a tense furrow of her brow stayed prominent on her delicate features.

Anoel lightly sighed as she pulled Ly back against her chest, feeling the cold, chilling sweat sheening over the thief's bare skin as she rolled herself over onto her back.

She pulled Lylac onto herself, something at the back of Ly's mind instinctively bringing her to cling to Anoel for warmth as the info-broker carefully began to burn her aura into the air beneath the covers.

A steady, soothing gale of gentle heat filtered out beneath the silk blanket, Anoel's gentle touch only growing more tender and protective as she felt Ly's tension in her body begin to loosen.

The whimper and heightened breathing began to calm a little, simmering down into a breathless mewl as Anoel felt the girl begin to burrow her flushed face into the crook of her slender neck.

Their bodies were pressed tightly together, but even with the amount of warmth coursing through Anoel's skin and into Lylac's, she still felt all the soft shivers and twitches rolling through Ly's spine as she slept.

It was obvious she was having a nightmare… and Anoel could easily wager a guess on what it was about.

But she calmly ran her heated fingers through Lylac's soft hair instead, just waiting it out as she kept her warm.

She wanted her to get as much sleep as she could get… and Anoel had every intention to spoil the thief all morning if it meant somehow distracting her from what happened at the bar.

The shivering seemed to finally calm down as a light groan eventually emanated from Ly's throat.

Anoel's gaze growing softer as Ly shifted under the black silken covers of her bed, a yawn finally making its way out of her mouth as her legs straightened and her back arched in a small stretch.

Anoel lifted her head just slightly to lower her arms down to encircle Lylac's arched lower back instead, eyes carefully waiting for the moment Ly's own eyes opened as her heated fingers drew circles against the girl's quickly warming skin.

There was a lot she was looking for. Pain, fear, anxiety, anything she could help to burn away as the morning went by.

She just hoped she didn't see all of them in Lylac's eyes when she woke up fully.

Ly rolled over onto her stomach, despite Ano's arms still wrapped around her waistline, her own arms slowly grasping at her new pillow.

When she opened her eyes, Anoel was met with a mixture of rose pink and sky blue sleepily gazing into her own irises, a passive look hidden in Ly's features.

Anoel lightly smiled at seeing it, but her protective worry didn't drop in her own eyes.

"Morning," the phoenix spoke quietly, sliding the two wings still strewn out beneath the covers back around Ly's body.

A wordless hum left Ly's own throat as her body shivered beneath the caress of the sliding soft feathers, lowering her head again back down onto the warm pillows beneath her.

"You still look tired," Anoel said, voice still soft as she rolled the both of them over to gently lay Ly down against the bed beneath her.

The phoenix pressed her arms lightly into the sheets at either side of the girl under her, a curtain of ebony hair draping down to frame Anoel's face as she gazed down at her.

Just waiting for her to say something.

"You tease them in front of me like that and I'll _have_ to play with them," the blonde commented as a slight smile curled across her lips, her eyes shifting into a pink hue.

"Nothing's stopping you," Anoel replied quietly, letting out a shallow breath at finally hearing Ly's light voice again.

Her heat grew a little more steady at the teasing words, part of her worries at least siphoning away for now as she gazed down into those bright eyes staring back at her.

"Though, we still need to shower," Anoel continued, leaning down to close the few inches that stood between them to lower her lips against the side of Ly's warm cheek, catching the corner of Ly's own lips with the chaste kiss, "And I plan to make you breakfast."

"If you're making breakfast, wait for me to get the fire extinguisher," Ly retorted playfully, her smile brightening even further.

"Don't worry, I've been practicing," Ano replied with her own growing smirk, "I want to try making omelets again."

Ly's delicate fingers reached for the myriad of glossy feathers by her sides, running the digits through them teasingly, "I'll be the judge of whether you can _actually_ make them."

"Arex has been helping me," Anoel replied, closing her eyes with a pleasurable flutter as she let her wings press into the warm touch and open up invitingly, "But I think you'll like them. They're the only thing I can make right now."

"How many attempts did it take?" Ly asked with a skeptical quirk of a delicate brow, "I mean, I'm surprised Arex even found the time to help you given how you preach about her and her love for baked goods and furnaces."

"She's a strict teacher when she wants to be, but it only took a little over four hundred eggs to make my first, decent omelet," Anoel replied softly with a smile, "A couple farmers who frequent her bakery chipped in to help with the dwindling supply, but it's no surprise she has a lot of fans. She doesn't even know she has any."

"Well, I only have _eight_ eggs, but I know one of those fans."

Anoel quirked her own brow as she pushed herself up just slightly, furrowing it again in mild apprehension and unsureness, "I… might have to use them all."

She couldn't stop the sheepish and meek smile from curling across her usually confident lips before gazing down in curiosity again.

"And who's that?"

"I'll never tell…" a wink was sent in Anoel's direction with Ly's reply.

The info-broker's own response came out in a light hum as she lowered herself again to lightly nuzzle Ly's cheek, "Someone I know?"

" _Possibly._ "

"That's a good sign," Anoel whispered, letting her cheek brush lightly over Ly's own as she lowered her soft lips to the girl's ear, dropping her tone by a few careful octaves, "Should I be worried?"

A small shrug was Ly's initial response, "Depends on how patient you are."

Anoel's lips warmly clasped around the edge of Ly's ear in response to that, eliciting a soft gasp out of the girl beneath her, "Are they… obsessive?"

A slight giggle slipped out of Ly's mouth, "They can be, and when they are, they're very obsessive."

Anoel breathed hotly against the ear she'd just nipped as she clicked her tongue, "Arex tends to draw more attention than she realizes, making it easy for an interest in her to spring up. How much of an interest does this _obsessive_ fan have in my cute, innocent sister?"

"Her genius is what intrigues this particular fan, as opposed to her looks and personality. There's nothing to worry about," Ly replied honestly, lightly running her nails up and down Anoel's spine.

The grazing touch only brought Anoel's body to press more needfully against Ly's own as her back arched, "Oh? So this particular fan knows a lot about my adorable baker then?"

Anoel brought her lips down to Ly's jawline as she traced her way up to the girl's chin, placing heated kisses along the way to eventually graze her soft lips against Ly's own teasingly.

"Do they know about Sparrow, by chance?"

"I think you already know that they do." Ly's statement was emphasized by her scratching becoming a little more forceful as her polished nails ran the length of Anoel's back.

The firmer touch drew a light gasp out of Anoel's own lips as she melted more against Ly's hot body, the phoenix's lips curling into a subtle smirk as she thought about it, "I guess he couldn't restrain himself when he hacked her. _Dying_ to meet my little Sparrow in person."

Ly brought one of her hands to Ano's chin, "Almost like me not being able to restrain myself right now… must run in the family."

"You're doing a good job holding back," Anoel teased, letting the girl do whatever she wanted with her touch as she surrendered her body to Ly, "What's taking you so long to kiss me?"

"I'm waiting for reciprocation, not permission."

Anoel's smirk grew just a little more as her bright eyes drew half-lidded, "You _know_ you don't need permission to do anything to me. But are you _asking_?"

"More or less… but I'll steal one anyway, _just in case…_ " Ly's voice grew even more breathless as she tilted her head, _daring_ Anoel to close the distance herself as she craned her neck up just enough to brush her own lips back over Ano's own.

The phoenix drew in a light breath before tilting her own head the other way, "Not the first time you stole something from me."

With the quiet whisper out of the way, Anoel stalled for just one brief, tantalizing second before dipping her head into the kiss.

Her lips firmly locked with Ly's own addictively soft and warm set to burn out the rest of the alcohol Anoel had been steadily filtering away, leaving behind nothing more than a gentle heat radiating through Ly's slender frame.

"You're a sly one, you know that?" Ly asked as the kiss was broken, "I didn't even realize what you were doing this time."

Anoel hummed distractedly as she smiled again, "That was the goal, wasn't it?" The info-broker's bemused smirk only grew as she brushed the tip of her nose against Ly's happily, "I'm a good multitasker."

"I _know_ you are," Ly replied, her hands once more occupying the feathers generously presented to her, "having someone else's aura infiltrate your own is a disconcerting feeling at best."

Ano hummed teasingly again as she leaned away, sliding her wings out from beneath Ly's back, "Just me trying to find new ways to get inside you."

A small grin crawled across Ly's face, "That was good, I'll have to remember that one."

"I can reacquaint you with all the other ways while we take a shower, if you want," Anoel offered, sitting herself up in her straddled position over Ly's waist to let her wings drape out across the bed behind her, "It'll let me show off more of my _multitasking_ skill."

Ly briefly glanced down to her own underwear before returning her eyes to Anoel, "Is this for you to make up for not getting me _completely_ naked when you put me to bed?"

" _Maybe_ just a little bit," Ano replied with a lustful gaze, "I'll be sure to strip you completely next time I tuck you in."

"You'd like that, wouldn't you?" Ly replied cheekily.

" _More_ than you _know_ ," Anoel responded with a smirk, letting her stray fingers dip into the thin waistband at Ly's hips to lightly tug the single article of clothing downward, "What kind of shower do you want? Warm? Hot? _Really_ hot?"

"All of the above."

Anoel's smirk never fell, "I think I can manage that."

* * *

 **So, there are two possible ship names for Anoel x Lylac that I want to run by you.**

" **Stolen Feather" and "Black Gem".**

 **Though, I've been leaning more toward Stolen Feather than the latter one. It just feels like it fits more.**

 **Mind you, this is probably what'll be happening on the side as Anoel vies for Niro's attention. Given how long that'll take, I'm thinking this'll be a good way to conflict her.**

 **I have two possible names lined up for Arex x Kit now as well, but I'll reserve those for the time being due to them not being a prominent presence in this chapter.**

 **More heated fluff… as to be expected between Anoel and Ly. You kinda have to see it coming at this point.**

 ***may or may not ship Stolen Feather really hard***

 **As a reminder though, Anoel's not only spoiling Ly, but she's doing everything in her power to keep her distracted. So far, I think it's working.**

 **On a side note, what do you think of the interactions between Arex and GHOST?**

 **I find them adorable… But this'll also play well into developing Arex as a character. I think it'll be fun seeing how she interacts with GHOST in her devices.**

 **Again, thanks to Hydra for helping with writing the chapter. As per usual.**

 **For now,** _ **Favorite**_ **and** _ **Follow**_ **.**

 **I look forward to seeing** _ **REVIEWS**_ **for this. You'll be introduced to a LOT of concepts of mine. Feel free to give me your thoughts.**

 **Cya XP**


	39. Eggs

Rogue Huntsman

Eggs

«»

Arex didn't get back into the dorm room until late that night, spending most of her time asking GHOST as many questions as she could think of.

So it wasn't surprising to see her still asleep next to Kitsuki when the fox woke up from her own long night of rest.

Her first actions were to check her own bruises, golden-orange eyes scanning down over her body as she lifted her shirt up to peek around her torso. Lithe, bare legs folded beneath her as she sat up, tails brushing softly back and forth against the bedsheets.

Creamy pale skin was still bruised, but the discolorations were significantly less swollen now and weren't quite as dark as they were last night.

Which was a good thing.

Two white fox ears flicked up in relief and elation to the mending sight before the girl's marigold gaze flicked over to her partner beside her, Arex still fast asleep.

The phoenix had her scroll clutched loosely against her chest, most of the device having slipped out against the bed by now as she rested on her side. Kit's eyes flicked down over Arex's curled legs for a moment before crawling over, resting herself back down to lie in front of Arex's sleeping face to wait for a little while.

She looked tired, so she didn't want to nudge her awake or anything. But she hadn't really woken up to Arex still being asleep before, so… it was almost too much of a novel sight to see Arex as peaceful and relaxed as this.

A few minutes passed before Kit's sleepy eyes flicked down for a moment to focus her attention on Arex's breathing chest, wondering just how much longer the girl was going to stay asleep into the morning.

Their classes weren't until nine, thankfully, so the two girls still had time to do away with.

Kit was happy to spend that time doing this.

She couldn't help but let her mind happily admit to being in agreement with what Anoel told her the first time she met Arex.

She looked cute when she slept.

The kitsune found herself inching forward as the minutes were ticking by, her gaze of interest slowly draining of its dreariness and growing more attentive to every small thing Arex did in her sleep.

She was tempted to nuzzle her nose with her own, but she didn't want to risk waking Arex up before actually waking up on her own.

So she settled with just lightly resting her hands against the sheets between them to wait around for the inevitable moment Arex opened her eyes.

She always liked seeing them change color.

But a small bleeping sound suddenly emanated from Arex's scroll, Kit's eyes going wide for a moment as her ears flicked to the new noise.

Bright eyes paid careful attention to the short vibration and small, concealed light flashing from behind Arex's lightly clasped hand, tails twisting a bit behind her in worry that she'd caused that.

Was it an alarm?

The bleeping and soft vibrations didn't stop, and Kit was starting to get worried that it'd wake Arex up. The phoenix was already shifting a bit in her sleep as the kitsune reached a careful hand forward to slip the closed black scroll out of her partner's lax fingers.

With a quick glance back to the girl to make sure she was still asleep, she quickly rolled over a bit to create a little distance, staring down at the device for just a short second before taking her pillow and muffling it, hoping that'd shut it up.

Kit's ears were only getting more and more folded against her head as everything only seemed to get worse. The sound only grew louder beneath the pillow, the vibrations intensifying even further as well while the kitsune tried her best to stifle it.

The pillow method didn't work… so she tried the next best thing and quickly swiped it out and stuffed it into the blanket they had on the bed.

She quickly wrapped it up as best as she could to stop all noises from getting out and lessen how far the vibrations carried, but her ears only flattened further as the levels still only rose.

A new vibration suddenly startled Kit from Arex's side of the bed, marigold eyes quickly flicking past Arex to the blue scroll on the nightstand.

The device over there started vibrating and flashing too, her ears and face visibly wincing from how loud it was on the hard wooden surface.

A small growl of annoyance silently slipped out of Kit's lips as she left the bundled up scroll on the bed and quickly reached over Arex to snag the other scroll from the wooden nightstand. With a quick thought and no regard for whose scroll it was in her hand, the simple thought of it _not_ being Arex's led her to doing the next best thing with this one.

Tossing it across the room.

Panicked eyes watched it bounce and slide across the carpet, coming to a vibrating halt to continue its annoying ministrations from the other side of the quiet dorm room.

She only pouted at that.

Nothing seemed to be working.

And the bundle of blanket she'd wrapped around the _first one_ suddenly came undone somehow and Arex's scroll started playing music.

A 'REALLY?!' look furrowed Kit's brow as her eyes glared down at the stupid devices, her pout only getting stronger as they kept getting louder.

It wasn't until she started to hear and _feel_ Arex shifting on the bed that her attention diverted.

Tails suddenly went rigid as Kit's back went stiff, ears folding in an almost guilty and ashamed way as she glanced back to see her partner yawning quietly against her pillow.

Kit's gaze immediately softened at the cute sight, but just as quickly grew confused as the alarms blaring in the room suddenly grew quieter.

The kitsune turned herself around to sit back on her heels and face Arex as the phoenix slowly pushed herself up with her arms, eyes slowly fluttering open after blinking a few bleary times.

Disheveled ebony locks fell over Arex's shoulder, her sweater's wide neck hole shifting as she pushed herself up to fall loosely over her opposite shoulder as well, Kit's eyes tracing all of the pale skin it revealed.

"W-what's with the alarms?" Arex asked quietly, rubbing her eyes a few times to try to get the sleep out of them.

Something that led into Arex stretching her arms over her head to pull at her arching back, sighing in contentment at the relaxing feeling to follow as she dropped her hands back to her sides and gazed tiredly at Kitsuki.

Kit couldn't help but give a meek little guilty smile as she shrunk a little on her bed, tails curling around her waist to hide her partially away.

The scroll Kitsuki had thrown suddenly opened of its own accord before the four corners flipped outward, glass lenses springing to life to emit a sky blue light. A young woman suddenly appeared above the surface of the device's screen, immediately confusing Kit even more.

Why was there a small person in that scroll?

"Your partner set the alarms in anticipation of the classes you both have yet to attend. Weather is currently sunny with a slight chance of clouds. Overall, a nice day awaits you."

Despite Kit's confusion, a look of offense quickly made its way to her face as she quickly signed in retaliation to it.

" _I didn't do it! They all just started making noise and I was trying to stop them…"_ Her shoulders shrunk even more as her pout got stronger.

The small woman was lying.

"Your partner lies, she was excited to see you awake once more and ready for the day," the woman responded evenly, flashing a small smile.

Arex's own eyes watched as Kit shrunk even further and threw her pillow at GHOST's hologram, the fluffy object just passing through as the AI happily built a bunker around herself to 'defend' against the attack.

"You missed me."

Kit silently growled as she looked around for more ammunition, her tails uncoiling to sift around aggressively behind her as she crawled over to Arex's pillow instead.

The phoenix could only stare tiredly for a few long moments, watching the two interact before most of the sleep in her eyes vanished in a single moment.

"Wait…" She quietly muttered to herself, part of her recognizing the fact that Kit had just lobbed _her_ pillow across the room too to pass through GHOST's defenses once again.

Arex's own gaze grew both concerned and confused as she flicked her eyes to GHOST's teasing form and stared at her.

"W-what are you doing?" Arex asked. What was the point of swearing secrecy if she was just going to pop up on her own?

"Winding her up, finding entertainment in her attempts to throw inanimate objects at a hologram, why?" GHOST replied, tilting her head as the scroll she was standing on still rested on the floor across the room.

Now next to two toppled pillows.

Arex's included.

"I-I thought she wasn't supposed to know about you…" Arex muttered, catching Kit's attention for the moment as the kitsune glanced back to her.

"Actually, I said _you_ couldn't tell anyone," GHOST clarified, "because I wanted to do it."

Arex's eyes widened for a moment in disbelief as Kit's own flicked back and forth between the two, her irritation still there but quietly simmering away in favor of building confusion.

She then pointed to GHOST for a moment, silently asking Arex who that was… but she was also stating one very firm message with her eyes.

"Yes, yes, I _know_ she started it," Arex replied calmly to her partner, the phoenix still getting over what GHOST did as she quietly shook her head in her hands, "That's… GHOST. An AI that's… going to be helping me for a while."

"Hello."

The simple greeting caused one of Kit's ears to flick again in annoyance, the kitsune crawling slightly closer to Arex as she sent a cautious gaze to GHOST.

Though… it was easy to mistake it for a protective glare.

" _Define "help"."_ Kit signed, sitting back onto her heels once she was close to her partner.

"Just with tech stuff… among other things," Arex admitted, reaching a stray hand up to pet between Kit's ears for a moment as she slid her folded legs out from beneath the blanket.

"Arex, you have a delivery, it's sat by the door," GHOST stated, pointing toward the entrance to their dorm.

"I do?" Arex questioned in return, turning her gaze toward their dorm's entrance while her off-hand subconsciously started scratching the bases of Kit's ears with a practiced ease.

Something that only _slightly_ got the kitsune to relax, if her purring was anything to go by.

Arex eventually slipped herself from the warmth of the bed to pad across the room, Kit's ears drooping in sudden jealous abandonment as the phoenix opened their door and gazed down at the hallway floor.

"You're welcome," GHOST spoke almost proudly as she smiled from her position on the carpet.

Staring down, Arex crouched for a moment to pick up a small, felt box, standing up to step back into the room.

It almost looked like a hinged container for jewelry, like something for a wedding ring.

Before Kit could get any more jealous than she already was, Arex lifted the lid and opened the box, eyes widening at what rested comfortably inside.

"Y-you ordered one of these _that_ quickly?!" she asked, pulling out a small, black, disc-like holographic projector.*

"You said you didn't have one, and since you can't keep that scroll, it made sense to get one as soon as possible," GHOST replied, her avatar immediately jumping to the black disc in the phoenix's hands.

The sudden switch caused Arex to flinch her head back for a moment, her fingers having been lightly tracing the disc's clean edges.

She did say that, but she wasn't expecting GHOST to _order one_ for her…

"Thanks, I guess…" Arex's eyes glanced down for a moment before quickly turning back to GHOST, "How much did it cost?"

"Oh, you don't need to worry about that. It's on the house," the AI responded dismissively.

Arex's gaze only narrowed a bit, unsure about even accepting that.

She'd never liked being given anything so freely.

"N-not even a little repayment?"

"Nope," the AI answered, shaking her head, "I made the purchase myself. It's more convenient for both of us."

Arex blew a small breath of air at her stray strands of hair to give the AI another unsure gaze, "Still, it was probably expensive…"

"You act as if it's an issue, I assure you it isn't. Not everyone owns a purpose-built scroll with holographic projectors, after all."

Not everyone _did_ because of how much lien it costed to buy… But Arex forced herself to let out a resigned sigh, glancing to GHOST one more time before carefully holding the disc in her hand and making her way back over to the bed.

She gently rested the projector down onto her nightstand for the time being, setting the box down next to it before glancing to Kit, who'd been staying quiet for the time being.

"You're awfully quiet this morning," Arex spoke lightly, the irony in her words not apparent to her in the slightest, "Scroll?"

Kit's ears folded again before reaching to where Arex's black scroll rested on the bed, plucking it up from where it lay on the sheets to crawl it over to Arex and hand it to her.

With a quick glance, Arex checked the time and sighed again, glancing between the two for a few short moments, "We have class in an hour, and I was in the forge room for most of the night, so I'm going to grab a shower."

She snapped her scroll closed before letting her gaze fall on GHOST.

"Was that why you were setting off alarms?"

"Being late would be bad etiquette, Miss Arex."

"Yeah… but Professor Caza's class never starts on time anyway," Arex sighed, holding her closed scroll down at her side as she glanced to her dresser, "I won't be long, Kit. If you need a shower too."

"I am well aware of Miss Miralla's "irritating" tendencies to show up late to class under the influence of alcohol. Ray's diagnostics always spike when she does, but it is still good conduct to arrive on time to the class's scheduled meeting time," GHOST spoke up, turning her small head to see Arex walk off to her dresser.

The phoenix pulled out a quick change of clothes before glancing to Kit on the bed, finding her staring at GHOST for a long few moments before turning her way.

" _I'll grab one after you. Take your time."_

"Would it not be more efficient to just take one together and conserve both water and prep time?" GHOST asked.

The casual tone GHOST used when asking that brought a startled look to Arex's face, the girl wanting to respond quickly to it but only sputtering out a meek jumble of words.

" _It would, but Arex would turn into a tomato."_ Kit signed instead, glancing her gaze back to GHOST for a moment before turning to see Arex's reddening cheeks. _"See?"_

"I see," GHOST simply replied, her avatar briefly flashing.

" _It's really cute, but I don't know if she would faint or not."_ Kit's signs were only making it worse for Arex as the kitsune blatantly avoided saying anything about her own thoughts of showering with the girl.

She wouldn't mind it.

Not at all.

With an almost urgent step, Arex quickly hid her lower face into the bunch of clothes resting in her hands, cheeks a bright red as she swiftly crossed the room and headed for the bathroom.

D-did Kit really have to say that?!

"I guess it's a matter of personal preference, though as an AI, the taboo surrounding nudity doesn't really apply to me."

That brought a small quirk to Kit's delicate brow as the bathroom door slammed shut across the room, the kitsune glancing back to GHOST after hearing a quiet squeal emanate from behind the closed door.

" _Then why do you still generate yourself clothes?"_

"Because I like this avatar."

" _It_ is _… nice, I guess."_ Kit replied, somehow putting emphasis on one of her words with a slight added facial expression. She couldn't help but move to poke at GHOST's small cheek, though.

"I hope you understand how a hologram works soon…" GHOST said in response, glancing toward Kit's finger as it passed through her face.

" _I've never really seen a hologram before."_ Kit signed simply, the sounds of the shower starting up coming from the bathroom now as she withdrew her hand back to her side.

"I can tell," GHOST replied, "your curiosity is noticeable."

Kit gave a silent affirmative hum as she nodded, flicking one of her ears, _"Why are you helping Arex?"_

"I was told to by my superiors, however, through extended direct exposure, it appears that she needs it more than they realized," GHOST replied, looking Kitsuki in the eyes.

" _How come?"_

"Her mannerisms and behavior exhibit that of someone who is consistently paranoid and fearful of something happening," GHOST replied curtly, "so it would seem that for the time being, securing her valuable files may or may not improve her mental health."

Kit lightly smiled at that, hoping it would help Arex too, but she wasn't sure if GHOST was picking up what else was startlingly noticeable about the girl, _"Are you helping with her social anxiety too?"_

"I was assigned to protect her from cyber attacks, but if doing so assists in her anxiety, I'll consider it a bonus."

" _You make your own decisions though. You don't seem like you always follow assignments to the letter."_

"You're right, I don't. But as for helping her anxiety, further experimentation is required to determine whether I am _capable_ of helping her in that regard," GHOST smiled as she spoke, "I was not designed with that purpose in mind."

Kit seemed to hum for a few moments before smiling again in return, _"Can I help? I've already been trying to do it myself since I met her."_

"You want my advice?" GHOST asked, dropping her smile as she pointed toward her chest, "Keep going."

Kit's smile only grew as she happily nodded to that, _"Will do."_

With soft music beginning to play from the bathroom and the sound of the water pelting the shower floor, Kit turned her gaze back to the bathroom door for a moment before looking down and wondering if she should grab her clothes ahead of time.

" _You don't seem artificial…"_ Kit signed, sliding off the bed to move her own short form over to the dresser she shared with Arex, _"I like that."_

"I appreciate your honesty, Miss Aeolus," GHOST nodded with a smile.

The kitsune soon returned with her own change of clothes, letting her tails brush back and forth behind her pale legs before she climbed back onto the bed and settled down again.

" _Are you why Arex left the room in such a hurry last night?"_ Kit asked.

GHOST shook her head, "No, that was because someone was hacking her, but from what I understand, you were supposed to be asleep."

" _I'm a light sleeper."_ Kit signed simply, but her ears immediately folded for a moment as she looked worried, _"She got hacked again?"_

"On a completely unrelated note, an anonymous cybercriminal was arrested this morning for possessing sensitive government secrets," GHOST replied lightly, smiling at the kitsune.

" _Completely unrelated?"_ Kit asked, finding it a little skeptical to hear, _"Did they somehow break a leg too?"_

"Potentially."

Kit couldn't help but smile at that, _"Good."_

* * *

With the first batch of eggs _suspiciously_ nowhere to be seen anymore, the satisfying sound of eggs cooking on Anoel's self-heated frying pan began to finally sizzle out into the room as the info-broker paid careful attention to everything she was doing.

Every _minute_ little detail.

For a task her sister made look startlingly simple, this was a complicated series of maneuvers, steps, and techniques that Anoel, quite simply…

Sucked at.

But she digressed, the first omelet actually _looking_ delectable for once as she turned a quick glance back to Ly, whose eyes were amusedly staring somewhere far lower than the stovetop itself.

"Eyes up here, Ly. I'm making you breakfast," Ano spoke out lightly, shifting her weight to her other bare leg as her only article of clothing swayed just a little bit.

Her shirt.

"Well, if you're putting yourself in plain view like that, I'm only going to take it as an open invitation," the blonde replied, her eyes finally meeting Ano's.

"Well, as _much_ as I love it when you stare at where I keep _my_ eggs, I need your input on what you want in your omelet," Anoel replied cheekily, considering throwing on her panties still lying on the floor in the bathroom.

"Ham and onions would be nice, though I'm pretty sure you can just throw whatever in there and it'll still taste decent," she replied, tilting her hair slightly.

"Love, there is a very minuscule chance that these eggs will be the best eggs you have ever eaten," Anoel replied curtly, filling the omelet with the two options Ly picked out with a light spring in her bare step, "But there's also a _very_ high chance that I'll mess this up… like always…"

Ly rested her arms against the breakfast bar, eyeing Ano carefully, "Have you ever considered _not_ manually heating the pan yourself? I have a stove for a reason, you know, it'll control the heat _for_ you."

"I _have_ , but I don't want to waste your Dust," the phoenix replied, sticking her pink tongue out of the corner of her mouth as she looked down at the omelet, prodding it with a spatula, "It's taking a while…"

Ly laughed a little, "One: I wouldn't have bought a 47.5 mil apartment if I couldn't afford to run it, and two: don't you dare rush my omelet, you have to be patient."

Anoel pouted with a little whine, "But all it would take is just a _little_ more heat. And I'm already wasting your eggs, the first batch anyway, Dust on top of that would only make me feel worse."

"That _little_ more heat would mean a trip to the store and a walk of shame for you, sweetheart," Ly countered, "you're so impatient."

"I'm patient," Anoel returned with a whine, leaning away from the pan and just letting it cook, "Just… this feels _so slooow_."

"The time you become patient will coincide with the day I grow a second head, would you like me to take over?"

"N-no," the info-broker responded with a frown, "I can do this. I didn't practice for a quarter of a year for nothing."

The thief before her curled her gentle fingers over her mouth, partially concealing her smirk, "Then I'll just sit here and watch as your concentration amuses me."

Anoel distractedly hummed in reply to that as she swayed her hips back and forth, the woman impatiently shifting her weight between her legs before she finally deemed it ready to fold the omelet.

And with an admittedly satisfied and completely unconcealed squeal of delight, the fluffy omelet actually had that golden texture her sister always told her to aim for.

"First try!"

"Liar."

"Okay, second try."

Ly hummed bemusedly as she rested her cheek back into her palm, "Still lying."

"T-thousandth try?"

"I didn't have that many eggs, but getting better," Ly's eyes watched Anoel's prideful expression with a soft gaze, "Now Little-Ano can teach you how to make a bacon sandwich."

"Hey, Arex is a good teacher. I just suck at this," Anoel replied curtly, smiling in delight as she took the pan up into her grasp and slid the first omelet onto the nearest plate.

With a satisfied grin, the phoenix took the serving up into her light grasp as she placed the pan back onto the stove, moving to slide the meal in front of Ly.

"Sorry for the wait, but hopefully it's good?"

Ly slowly pinched a fork between her thumb and index finger, keeping her eyes on Anoel as she cut a piece of the omelet and stabbed it, "Time to find out."

She placed the fork in her mouth and with a thoughtful hum, her lips curled into a small smile as she delicately chewed.

Anoel just rested her head in her arms with her weight shifted to just one of her legs, the other bent and crossed behind her ankle as she waited for the final verdict.

Observant eyes eventually watched the corners of Ly's lips quirk up slightly as the thief finished her bite, "It's… tolerable. Seems your sister _is_ a good teacher."

"YUS!" Anoel all but squealed and jumped, "Better than I expected! And yes, yes she is."

"Soon you'll be able to feed yourself."

"E-erm, I wouldn't go that far," Anoel replied, but her smile remained.

With a quick pivot and a fan of her hair, she cracked the next batch of eggs into the frying pan to start her own omelet up.

A noticeable bounce rested in the phoenix's step as she moved about, which was something Ly's eyes happily glued to as she ate her meal.

"Breakfast _and_ a show? Must be Christmas morning and no one told me."

"Oh you can _count_ on me making our Christmas morning something to remember," Anoel spoke with a light flutter in her voice, if not a heavy lace of a silkily seductive tone.

"Considering my decision to remain here _might_ be permanent, that'll be certainly something to look forward to," Ly responded evenly, "I'm cooking the dinner though."

Anoel gasped as she threw a glance over her shoulder and stared at Ly for a long few moments, "You're planning to stay in Vale?"

She wasn't at all bothered by the secondary comment…

"Been thinking about it…" she replied as her eyes scanned the apartment, "I like this place, and if I've taken the effort to decorate it, I might as well make it home too."

"I think you'll like it," Anoel stated happily, "There's a lot to like, even people like me who dance around the city's underground."

"Of course, I'd need a _real_ job… you and I both know that this city would run out of valuable items if _I_ stayed the course," the thief's smile widened, "that said, I've had something in mind for a little while now..."

" _Ly_? Getting a _real_ job?" Anoel gasped again in mock disbelief, stealing a quick glance to her omelet before letting her ears hone in on Ly behind her, "What did you have in mind?"

"Look around you, I have gold bars and gems to fill an entire bank vault. So, I asked myself a question..." Ly paused for a moment, "why would I sell them for what they _are_ when I can make something else out of them instead? _So…_ I decided that I wanted to learn how to make jewelry."

"Awe, setting your sights on something reliable," Anoel hummed in endearment, "That's adorable. But I think you can make some gorgeous jewelry, you already have a keen eye for it."

"I hope so, but I'm not good with technical stuff, that's Ray's domain…" the thief admitted, continuing to eat her omelet.

"But you are _extraordinarily good_ with the delicate stuff, _especially_ with gems," Anoel countered, giving a light hum as she folded her own omelet, her collection of diced onions, tomatoes, and cheddar heatedly nestled just inside.

"True, I'll have to buy some kind of furnace or something, to be able to melt the gold and silver littering my floor and shelves," Ly replied thoughtfully.

"Furnaces don't run cheap, but I doubt that's a problem for you. If you're in need of someone who's already done extensive research into that…" Anoel looked up with a thoughtful smile before glancing back to Ly, "Arex might be of some help."

Ly's eyes suddenly had a shine to them as she looked back up toward Ano, "Is that you giving me permission to meet her?"

"Nothing I can do to stop your cousin from doing just that, so you might as well pop in and say hi. Don't tease her _too_ much, she already gets a lot of that from me," Anoel replied with an earnest smile, slipping her hot omelet onto her own plate, "I think you'll like her."

"My cousin does _whatever_ he wants _when_ he wants, so that's hardly surprising, but if you think for a minute that I'm about to step foot on Beacon grounds, then you're sorely mistaken, Ano," Ly replied with a small grin, "she's got to come to me."

"I'll swing her by your apartment at some time soon then," Anoel said, resting the hot pan back onto the warm stove before snagging her plate and making her way over to Ly, "Might be fun if I have you babysit her for a bit."

"How long is 'soon' and what do you mean by a 'bit'? You understand that you can literally go and snatch her today and I wouldn't care," Ly spared a moment to glance down to her lack of clothing, "I think I'd have to get dressed first though…"

"Don't know, maybe not today… How does tomorrow sound?" Anoel asked, keeping her voice light but holding back a momentary tension in her words.

She couldn't do tonight…

"It'll be hard to separate her from her adorable partner, so I might just have to drop the kitsune off too once I can kitnap the both of them."

Ly glanced to Anoel with a questioning expression, " _Kitnap?_ "

"What? One's a cute kitsune and the other's my little adorable kitten-like falcon that I just love to nuzzle and cuddle," Anoel replied with a shrug of her slender shoulder, looking as innocent as always.

"You and your puns…" Ly jokingly replied with a roll of her eyes.

"I _do_ like _indulging_ in my purely _logical_ and _theoretical_ science of probable unified neuronamation systems."

"I… have no idea what any of that means…" Ly muttered in reply.

" _P…_ " Anoel whispered, leaning across the counter to graze her lips against Ly's ear, " _u…_ "

With a quick nip, she couldn't help but tug lightly at the edge of the sensitive flesh she found there before breathing out hotly.

" _n…_ " she was _really_ hammering it in now, " _s._ "

"I'm not sure if that was supposed to be seductive or patronizing," Ly whispered to herself with furrowed brows.

Anoel gave an amused hum as she pecked Ly's cheek and moved back, stealing the thief's fork along the way to take her own first bite of her second omelet, "A little of both. Hard to imagine I'd _actually_ turn you on with my puns."

"Not that I know of, but knowing you, I'm 90% sure you'd find a way," Ly replied with a smirk.

"Mmm… probably," Anoel returned, smiling through her own finished bite before her gaze turned earnest, "I don't really like doing _too_ many though. I'd hate to ruin the mood."

"One of the many things you excel at is the art of taking a person's most sexual desires and abusing them to high heaven with ease," Ly stated, "I would know, as I'm one of your victims."

Anoel smirked proudly at that as she gave another happy hum, "That's me. You make it too easy, and so does Arex."

"Are you calling me easy, Anoel?" Ly asked with a quirked eyebrow.

"I'm only saying that I can play your body like a fiddle and make all the noises I want out of you," Anoel replied with a teasing grin, "Noises I _adore_."

"Uh huh… of course you do," Ly responded, taking her fork back.

"You _know_ I do," Anoel returned, swaying back and forth for a few moments as she waited to steal the fork back. No use in getting out a second one if they could just share.`

Ly sighed as she resigned to Anoel's words, "Yeah… you're right."

"Mhmm," Ano hummed, smirking even more.

So far… it seemed she was able to keep Ly's mind off of Quinn for the time being.

But that couldn't last.

Especially since Ano had to leave a few hours from now, and she had no idea how soon she'd be coming back after that.

If she could come back at all...

* * *

 **Figured a little calm before the storm would be nice. Anoel's got a plan that she's going to be seeing through as soon as she leaves Ly's apartment, so right now, she's enjoying as much as she can.**

 **Arex and Kit are going to have an interesting time soon, won't spoil what though. Just that it'll be interesting.**

 **GHOST is fun.**

 **She's actually giving me a nice reason to show more and more of Arex's character and her interactions with Kit.**

 **You know, to shamelessly fuel the fiery ship I have for them.** _ **Speaking**_ **of which, I have two possible placeholder names for those two now.**

 **I have no idea if either of them will actually work though.**

" **White Flame" and "White Sparrow". Thoughts?**

 **On a side note, does anyone know what "Perm Press Warm" means on a washing machine? A cute girl asked me about that in the laundry room (because college). It's abbreviated to fit on the button, so I thought I'd ask.**

 **On another side note, is there anything you want to see from the story? I'm curious.**

 **For now,** _ **Favorite**_ **and** _ **Follow**_ **.**

 **I look forward to seeing** _ **REVIEWS**_ **for this. You'll be introduced to a LOT of concepts of mine. Feel free to give me your thoughts.**

 **Cya XP**


	40. Indispensable

Rogue Huntsman

Indispensable

«»

Steam poured out of the bathroom door as Arex padded back out from her shower, lightly pressing a black towel to her hair as she looked over to Kit on their bed.

As soon as she stepped out though, a quiet buzz came from her scroll by the nightstand, a light starting to filter through its central slit in a soft blink of bright green.

GHOST probably sent her something. Either that, or someone else had creepily good timing.

She quickly made her way over and dropped the bundled towel onto the bed, her loose sweater still clinging to her skin a bit from the dampness of the steam.

' _Ray's ready to give you the money for his processors. Thought you'd like to know.'_

It was GHOST, which actually brought a slight relief to Arex's frame.

' _He's in the courtyard, laying down by one of the oak trees.'_

The phoenix gave a tiny nod before glancing toward her dresser, _'I'll meet him there then.'_

She quickly got a fresh pair of socks and threw on her sneakers, pocketing her thin black scroll as she did so while evading a few of Kit's momentary curious glances.

"I'll be back soon. Just need to pick something up," Arex said, giving Kit a small smile before making her way toward the door.

The words brought a slight flick out of one of Kit's ears, gaining a small moment of attention as well, _"Food?"_

"Not exactly. Just payment for the processors you watched me make." She got the door open a moment later to glance back to a nod from the kitsune, watching as Kit went back to reading a textbook on the bed before slipping into the hallway.

It didn't take long to get to the courtyard GHOST mentioned, Arex's eyes already trying to find Ray through the windows as she made her way through the corridor to get outside.

And with only the couple oak trees out there, it wasn't really hard to spot him out by one of them, furthest from the campus buildings.

When she got outside and crossed the courtyard though, he was still staring up into the leaves of the tree above him as she slowly approached the base of it.

The white stick of a lollipop jiggled about from his mouth as he slid it to the corner of his lips, staring off into something that Arex wasn't too sure of.

"GHOST told me you were ready with the payment," Arex started, keeping her voice soft in case she was interrupting something he was doing.

Ray sat up slightly, lifting a black suitcase decorated with gold trimming from the grass beside him and sliding it over to her.

She was a bit surprised she didn't notice it at first, given its contrast to its surroundings.

"There."

"I… take it you looked everything over?" Arex asked further, carefully gazing down at the case, "I followed the blueprints exactly. Kept from making any adjustments too, in case everything was specifically calibrated and measured for a reason."

"They work perfectly well. I just needed to load firmware on them," He replied evenly, gesturing toward the case.

"Something you designed, I guess?" she asked, crouching down to turn the suitcase more toward her. It was startlingly heavy, forcing her to actually fix her footing for a moment to drag the thing around just to get to the latches.

"Correct, I knew what I wanted when I designed them," he affirmed, "Scroll? You won't need it now that you have your projector."

The boy held out his hand and finally diverted his gaze from the leaves to Arex's eyes.

Scroll… r-right.

She carried it on her just in case she came across him at some point before now, so she gave a small nod before sliding his blue scroll out of her pocket to hand over to him, "The projector was a little much, but I'm glad GHOST has somewhere to stand at least. I wasn't aware she could make purchases on her own."

"She makes her own money just like the rest of us, just her disposable income is a lot more than your average person," Ray explained casually, "Enough to buy a 100k portable hologram projector. As you can see."

"A-and get it delivered that morning… to my dorm room door, no less," Arex finished for him with her own apprehensive shrug, "I didn't know delivery services did that. Especially to a school away from the Kingdom and on a cliffside."

"That's because they don't."

Ray's eyes returned to the leaves above him, rays of light passing through them and partially illuminating his face, "She's smart, therefore, has her own ways of making sure her parcels get delivered in record time."

Smart?

It… felt like GHOST was backed by a supercomputer, which in Arex's honest opinion, would've been shocking if she wasn't.

"She's smarter than any AI I've worked with," Arex replied, fiddling with the clasps for a few moments before getting them to unlock, "or researched."

When she finally got it open, her lips suddenly grew pursed before opening silently, then closing again as she sat back on her ankles in confusion.

"T-this is a lot of lien…" she muttered, eyes roaming over the briefcase stacked to the brim with currency.

"Eleven million. Should cover the cost of parts and labor. On both your parts."

Ray's voice donned a noticeable carelessness as he continued staring at the sky. Flipping his lollipop to the opposite side of his mouth.

"D-didn't you already pay for the parts? And b-both?" Kit helped organize the parts and keep her company, but Arex didn't know Ray saw that.

"Your point?" Ray asked as his violet eyes glanced toward her, but her confused eyes were still staring down at the case resting on the ground, "And yes, both of you. Credit should be given where it's due."

"It's just… I don't remember this being in the price range we agreed on," Arex spoke out quietly, part of her breath a little too short to fully voice her words.

"You never gave me an exact price. So, I just paid in full, plus 1 mil for the fox," Ray replied evenly, "Congratulations. You're now a millionaire."

H-he was over exaggerating the price of those parts by a… _h-huge_ margin. And Arex couldn't wrap her head around why.

She wasn't at all opposed to paying Kit her share. Probably more than it, with how much was in the case.

"I-it's still too much," she muttered quietly.

"Well, it's there, so you can take it or leave it, I really don't care."

Was Sentinel really this well funded to be throwing lien around like this…? Arex couldn't help but just… stare…

Down at the case, up to his lounging face, back down to the case, even the tree. She didn't know how else to say that she wasn't comfortable taking a payment this large.

"I-I-" Now she just couldn't speak, let alone think through the simple idea of actually _bringing_ the case back to her dorm room and stashing it somewhere to eventually transfer into her account.

What was she even supposed to do with 11 mil in physical lien lying around beneath her bed?

Could she even be inconspicuous about it…?

"Solar flares like this don't happen every day, did you know that?" Ray eventually broke her thoughts nonchalantly, still gazing upward, "I've been keeping an eye on the Sun recently, observing its magnetic field. The last time they'd been this big was four months ago."

"A-and that doesn't hurt your eyes?" Arex asked, finally forcing her gaze away from the money to trace it to his eyes.

"I'm immune to it. My eyes are accustomed to all light conditions. A hereditary trait."

Hereditary… Must be nice, not having to worry about any kind of visibility issues, "I'm just… surprised your eyes don't get damaged at all, staring at it for so long. Let alone able to see the flares bursting without any kind of magnification."

"You ever tried welding and accidentally forgot to flip your mask down? Or been hit by a flashbang?" Ray asked, violet eyes still staring up.

Arex just shook her head to both. She'd never been in either of those kinds of positions, or forgot to actually take that precaution when working.

"Both of those instances are examples of what my eyes are capable of enduring," Ray continued, "They're also really good at spotting an Affinity user."

H-he… wait, what?

As he said that, he turned to look at her with a neutral expression. A gaze that felt anything _but_ neutral.

 _How?_ Arex felt herself almost fall back from his calm gaze as she nearly lost her balance, but she carefully took a tighter hold of the case in front of her to keep her in place.

She didn't know if she could believe him on that or if he was just trying to draw something out of her, and she already knew she failed that last part.

"I-I don't see how you'd be able to see something like that if major research organizations haven't been able to find a way to detect it yet."

"You're right. I can't spot that with just a glance," Ray admitted, and for the first time since she got here, actually moved enough to sit himself up fully, "I've been trying to wrap my head around something for a little while, but couldn't connect the dots until now. Why did a world-renowned, anonymous blacksmith choose to come to Beacon? Because from what I could tell, this place is a _waste_ of your time."

Waste of time… That was the lowest on Arex's list, amongst a long series of other reasons why she was attending Beacon.

But she only needed one of them to be here.

"I don't suppose you'd be satisfied if I told you it was just for personal progression, would you…?" she asked slowly.

"I'm not brain dead, there's always more to it than that. And it's almost _always_ personal."

The girl's voice just drew quiet, falling into a mutter, "Then why ask for it, if you know it's going to be personal?"

"Because there are better places than _this_ to train an affinity."

Ray's eyes glowed slightly with that response, indicating a more serious demeanor.

Something she was hesitant to even want to address.

"I don't know anyone, or have any kinds of connections, to find anywhere else but here," Arex spoke with a sigh, feeling closed in all of a sudden, "It's not like my sister's willing to train me, or anyone else I know."

"Controlling it is something instinctual, no one can _teach_ you how to use it, you have to learn it by trial by fire," Ray replied, shaking his head, "Quite literally, in your case. A barren field in the middle of nowhere is better than this puppet factory of a school."

She would've found herself almost agreeing to that… if she hadn't already tried it, "Controlling it is the only thing I want to do. E-even if it's just enough to-"

She stopped herself there as she lightly grabbed her arm, finding herself just wanting to leave instead of confessing just how much she was actually afraid to touch her affinity.

His eyes had stopped glowing now, but she still looked away. Even if his gaze was softer.

"It's not something I want to try alone." Being alone when she tapped into her affinity was the last thing she wanted to try.

She heard him sigh with a soft rustling in the grass, "Look, I'm in no position to judge you for possessing an affinity you can't control. Point is, Arex, I know for a fact that the faculty and the facilities in this place aren't equipped to handle it."

He paused for a moment, and that was enough to draw her strayed attention back. He distractedly plucked a few blades of grass out from beneath him before he turned to look at her.

"I am though."

His final comment hit her harder than the rest of them, something that only fueled that small seed of worry in her about this whole conversation.

This school was one of her few options, and she already knew there was a small chance of Beacon being able to help her. But she immediately held her lips tightly together to hold back any kind of response, just staring at him for a few long seconds before directing her eyes back down to the grass.

He'd already paid her. She could just leave.

He clearly knew more than he let on about Affinities, and she didn't want to test just how much more he knew in worry that his interests in it were a bit further than just an innocent offer to help her gain control over it.

"Why are you offering…?" she asked softly, feeling her legs tense in an urge to just get her up and moving, but the numbness in them kept her in place.

"I understand that my shady behavior and the people I work for are enough to make you doubt my intentions. It's clear you already have enough on your plate without Sentinel knocking on your metaphorical front door," Ray spoke slowly and clearly as he looked at her, "I also know, that from your perspective, I have nothing obvious to gain from helping you control your erratic power, but… knowing that I've given you this offer will hopefully make you reconsider your options. If you'd let me, I'll help you, but your decision is entirely at your discretion."

Her discretion also meant that she didn't have to give her decision right now… or anything close to it, "It's easy to say, but it's hard to trust someone I still know little about. It doesn't help that you keep most of your motives hidden, either."

He had a lot of them, too. From what she could tell.

After a few more moments, she slowly forced herself to her feet, dragging the heavy case with her as she took a step back. It was hard for her to say anything more.

"I've spent half of my life dealing with secrets, so I hope you understand when I tell you it's a prominent difficulty spilling them to people I don't know," Ray responded evenly, "or understand."

She understood that. She really did. But trust for her was never easy, "Guess we both have trust issues."

He didn't say anything in response to that, but she knew she was right.

She almost felt numb as she realized just how much her arms were straining down from the case's weight, shoulders already drawing in tightly to her body as she lowered her chin.

She didn't want to say or ask anything more, so she slowly turned around and silently backtracked the way she came.

Leaving him where she found him.

* * *

Anoel almost felt dead as she left Ly's apartment.

It was hard enough trying to keep to that happiness she was exuding to keep Ly's thoughts away from last night's encounter. If it even worked at all. But it was even harder trying to cling to the false hope that telling Ray would even do anything.

Or not telling him.

She tried convincing herself that telling Ray would end poorly. Hours of her thoughts all boiling through her as she poured over drinks at some random bar she stumbled across in the corner of downtown Vale.

She didn't want to bother Niro with this, assuming his bar was even open.

Wherever he is.

There was nothing in her mind that even remotely convinced her that any of her choices were the easy way to go, or the right way. They all led back to Quinn, whether all parties actually knew about her or not.

And _all_ of them got Ly hurt.

Even this one.

But Ano would rather damage what little of a relationship they had between one another than wait for Quinn to come around and hurt Ly all over again, like she did in the past.

And losing Ray would hurt Lylac the most.

It just left her one option.

It didn't help that the one option she had was the hardest one to get herself to follow through with, if it meant going behind Ly's back like this.

Tell him… or wait for Quinn to find him and do it for her.

They both didn't sit well, but it wasn't like this was ever going to be pretty.

Anoel would always choose to hurt herself over letting anyone she cared about get hurt instead. Especially when she could step in their way and take that pain away…

' _We need to talk.'_

It was an unsent message that's been sitting on the screen of her scroll for an hour now, cursor still blinking tauntingly as she swirled the liquid of another ice-clinking drink around in her refilled glass.

She needed to send it. She had to. But she knew, as soon as she did, she couldn't back out of it.

Not like she wanted to.

"Relationship problems?"

Anoel's eyes glanced up in a distracted glaze to see the bartender standing in front of her, cleaning one of his spare glasses with a white cloth.

She pursed her lips for a moment before setting down her drink, gaze falling back to her scroll in a blank, neutral stare.

"Something like that," she muttered breathlessly.

His face didn't seem to change in the reflection of her alcohol.

He just set down the shining glass he was cleaning to replace it with another wet one.

"Your fault or theirs?" he asked.

"Mine." Or it will be, anyway.

"Something they can forgive?"

She looked away at that to hide her dull grimace, burying her eyes in the shadow of her hat, "God I hope so…"

"Then stop drinking," he continued, his ease in the tense silence of this part of the bar almost unsettlingly reminiscent of Niro's, "You wasting away here won't fix anything."

She knew that. Everybody knew that. But she knew it more than anyone.

Still…

"Can't a girl just be depressed for a few hours…?" she muttered in question, lifting her glass again to tilt its cold rim up to her lips and take a sip.

It burned, but she'd rather feel something than nothing right now.

"Hard to answer that when the girl I'm looking at's been depressed for far longer than just a few hours," he replied back, setting down his second glass to pick up a third.

The gaze she hid away grew narrowed as she dipped her head, lowering her glass away from her face and back to the bar countertop beneath her arms, "Reading people isn't always the first thing you should do."

"Neither is drinking under the stress of your problems."

She didn't like how much he sounded so familiar there, "I was just about to head out, anyway."

One more tip downed the rest of her drink, dropping the icy glass to slide it forward for him to take away as she pushed herself to her feet.

Her gaze came to rest on her scroll again, a dull glare still filtering through her clouded irises for a long few moments before she numbly plucked the device from where it rested.

It was only the soft sound of the bartender placing down his third glass that drew her scarce attention back to him for a moment.

"No, you weren't."

She hated him.

Because he was right.

So she sent Ray her message and left.

* * *

"What menial thing have I done now?"

Menial sounded too innocent for this, but Anoel's gaze was too dull to make fun of his question.

They were outside, pulled away from the rest of the school in one of the most secluded gardens of the academy.

She chose it because the groves of trees and flowers were thicker here, but she'd be lying if she said she didn't also just want something pretty to look at while she drew on darker thoughts.

Her gaze eventually fell unfocused, dropping onto the lilac bushes around them, wondering if she could see through the branches if she stared for long enough.

"Ly doesn't want me here," she spoke softly, letting ebony bangs drift slightly in the passing breeze as she cowered lazily away against the tree she leaned on, "She doesn't know I'm here, either."

"And this is my problem?" Ray stood a healthy distance from Ano, leaning against a tree of his own with his arms crossed.

"I'd rather it be yours too rather than just Ly's to bear," Anoel clarified, watching as the colorful textures and hues of the garden's flowers swayed in the wind, branches and leaves all bristling together.

She could feel his eyes narrow, even sense the subtle light starting to emit from his violet irises, "You have my attention."

And he had hers…

Mostly.

"I'll preface this by saying you can't go to her after you know. I don't want to drag her into this more than she already is. She'll get hurt the more I do."

"I'm not liking the way you're speaking about her…" Ray's voice dropped an octave as the illumination in his eyes grew brighter, "What exactly is _this?_ "

Her strayed gaze finally turned to him since they met up, eyes more unsure than he's probably ever seen them, "You won't run off as soon as I say it, will you?"

His eyes narrowed, "I can't promise anything until I know what it is."

"You won't know what it is unless you promise," Anoel countered, eyes almost looking pained as her voice sounded pleading, "I can't let her get hurt."

"If you believe that I can't just leave and find out for myself, you're sorely mistaken," Ray responded lowly, "I live and breathe secrets, getting this from Ly will be as easy as _asking_ for it."

"Ly's the one who begged me not to tell you." Anoel's voice fell in volume as much as it did tone.

"And yet here you are…"

"I'm here because not telling you will only hurt her in the long run far more than she's been hurt in the past."

"Then you had better tell me what it is that's hurting her so I can _fix_ it," Ray's countenance felt malicious. But she knew she deserved that.

"Fixing it will take nothing short of removing it as a problem permanently," Anoel responded just as softly, despite his change in demeanor, "so it'll never come back again."

Why was it so hard to just say it…?

"Again? Implying whatever it is has done it before. If you want to play 21 questions, I'll leave right now and seek my cousin, because at least, _from her,_ I'll get a straight fucking answer."

"I'll give you your straight answer then."

Her voice hardened in its response, drawing back from how far it'd receded in its usual volume.

"Quinn's alive. And she's looking for you, Ray."

His slowly brightening eyes immediately shot to full glow as his entire body stiffened, and while his face held its usual neutral expression, she could see several red flags flashing brightly behind his irises.

He didn't have a response.

She didn't want one.

So she gave him her own.

"We need to kill her, Ray. It's the only way she'll stop."

His eyes had drifted from her to the ground, but after hearing her speak they immediately shot to her fearful white eyes.

The same color she couldn't bear to see in her own sister's eyes.

"You don't need to tell me what I already know."

Ray's voice was a whisper as he began to walk past the info-broker, stopping right next to her as he caught his breath.

"I did it once before… and I'll fucking do it again."

* * *

 **Whelp, no Niro this chapter, still. But I felt he'd get in the way a bit if he was here. He's always doing his own thing…**

 **I wonder what he's up to. Probably something to do with that lion, actually.**

 **As for the prominent issues at hand, yeah, a witch hunt is underway.** _ **Somebody's**_ **getting hurt and Anoel wants to be the one to stand in the way of that frontal assault.**

 **She hopes it'll work. If not, then she'll keep trying until it does.**

 **Guess we'll see how that goes, since it's all unavoidable.**

 **For now,** _ **Favorite**_ **and** _ **Follow**_ **.**

 **I look forward to seeing** _ **REVIEWS**_ **for this. You'll be introduced to a LOT of concepts of mine. Feel free to give me your thoughts.**

 **Cya XP**


	41. Deviation

Rogue Huntsman

Deviation

«»

"I don't know how long she controlled the both of you… but I know it was for years. So I won't ask too many questions," Anoel slowly stated, following Ray as he pushed his way through the crowded pathways toward the dormitories, "if any at all. I just need to know one thing."

Anoel paused for a moment as they walked inside, but however brief it was, she already knew he was only half-listening.

"Do we stand a chance?"

Ray passed a dorm room, grabbing a male student by the collar and throwing him back inside as he was about to leave it. " _I'm sorry_ , but at what point did you think you were tagging along?"

"From the moment I dug my sword out of my personal vault," Anoel replied coldly, dropping a palm to its crimson pommel to lift the tip of its slim black sheath, "I was going either way. Whether you decided to run with Ly and leave, or actually fight her."

"And you think it will be as easy as digging out a sword?" Ray snarled, practically kicking his way into his dorm room. Luckily, it was unoccupied.

"As useful as whatever you're about to dig up," Anoel muttered back, staying in the doorframe.

He immediately approached his side of the room before lifting his bed up by pillars of violet light. His hand then reached for a black, militaristic crate.

"If you're coming then you better bring more than a fucking sword…"

He popped the latches open, revealing the contents inside.

Military-grade weaponry rested in organized padding inside, but Anoel was never a fan of bulky firearms.

"Sword and twin daggers. I'm keeping lightweight." She knew she'd need to be prepared for this fight, "Can't be slow against her. Though I can't make sense of all the red flags I got about her from Ly as we talked…"

Ray pulled out a black, lightly armored jacket, almost identical to the one he wore now, and set it to the side. Following it he brought out black jeans and a pair of handguns of the same color.

"You can't get comfortable up close either, so if those are your _only_ weapons of choice, it's your funeral," Ray said over his shoulder as he loaded the firearms and cocked the slides back.

"Up close is the only way I know how to fight," Anoel returned, eyes roaming about the room as her fingers fell into an instinctive tight grip around her weapon's handle, "I already know the risks."

"Do you?"

Ray paused as he turned to face her, carrying the change of clothes in his hands.

"There's a reason why Ly fears her, Anoel. And it's got _nothing_ to do with her fighting skill."

Ray then passed her on his way to the bathroom, intent on changing his attire.

"The little I do know of her just makes me want to find her all the more." That was _especially_ because of just how much Ly feared her. And for all the traumatizing reasons to follow.

Ray was out of the bathroom no longer than 5 minutes after he entered it, "Well, since you're so adamant about killing her, I guess this trip will be educational for you."

"I don't care if it's educational," Anoel retaliated, eyes distractedly focused on the window and its dimming glint, "I'm here because as long as she's alive she poses a very real danger to both of your lives."

"Well thank you for stating the obvious once again, but before we do anything, riddle me this, info-broker," Ray began as he slotted his guns inside the holsters on his thighs, finally turning to face her directly, "What the _fuck_ has any of this got to do with _you?_ "

"Because I owe it to Ly to do this for her," Anoel said, her voice dropping.

"So signing up for a suicide mission is your way of repaying her? Forgive me if I'm a little skeptical, but I don't believe you're doing this to pay her back for something."

"There's a lot I owe her," Anoel stated plainly, drifting her gaze to the floor now, "It's in your nature to be skeptical, but we both want the same thing."

She was there for Ly's sake.

Ray was always there for Ly's sake.

Disbelief was evident in his eyes, but he nodded regardless, "There's more to what you're saying, I'm not stupid, but it doesn't matter now. We're probably both going to die anyway."

Anoel didn't want to drag anyone else into it. She had no intention to, because this wasn't their fight. With the two of them, there was some small chance of apprehension in a killing blow due to usefulness.

Ano knew Ray was useful in Quinn's eyes, and that could stay a killing blow if it came down to it.

For herself, she didn't care if it did or didn't. For anyone else she brought with her…

They were sure to die without a hint of hesitation.

She refused to let that happen.

"Whatever happens, whether we're enough or not, we're not walking away from this unless she's dead or we are," Anoel spoke lowly.

"Then there are some things you should know," Ray replied, voice as low as hers was, "Firstly, it wasn't years. It was one. One year, seven months, and fourteen days. Lylac lost track of time due to what happened to her, and furthermore, nearly lost her mind too."

Anoel would do anything to take that year away, if she could, "We'll make up for that time then."

"It took me half a year to stop her from having nightmares about it, Anoel. The scars she has, both the mental and physical ones, run a lot deeper than you think," Ray closed his crate and slid it under the bed.

All of it made Anoel sick with a deep, twisting pain of remorse for something she had no control over. It tore her back to the same feeling of dread she had when their parents died and she found Arex in the ruins of their villa.

The same, sickly trauma sunk through Arex's dull eyes as it did the other night, in Ly's. When Quinn came back.

She knew she couldn't have done anything, but she wished she could've stopped it ever since she met Ly all those years ago.

Taking away that void in Ly's past was impossible. Anoel knew that. Replacing it was almost just as hard.

But making sure it never happened again was all Anoel wanted to do right now.

"I spent hours stitching her back together after that bitch spent minutes tearing her at the seams. So, unless we actually kill her tonight, the time that was stolen from her will never be replaced. I am willing to die if I have to," Ray tore his gaze from the phoenix and looked to the window.

Anoel just kept staring blankly at the floor.

"I don't know what your relationship with my cousin is, but there are only three reasons why she'd tell you about Quinn. Either she trusts you, she had no choice, or you pried the information from her," he stared out the window with the same cold, unfeeling expression, "Personally, I'm inclined to believe that it's the second, but… I have been wrong before."

So has she, "There's a lot of contacts and targets I'll openly admit to prying into for information. It's my job, and I'm good at it."

It was one of the only things she knew for sure she was good at.

"But Ly was never one of them."

A long-winded sigh escaped Ray's parted lips. "I'll take your word for it, but this is far more personal to you than you let on."

"Quinn made it personal that night in the bar," Anoel muttered out, knowing and _feeling_ just how personal this ran. Something that scared her far more than the prospect of them not walking away from this alive.

"So you've seen her…?" Ray asked, turning to face her.

"I've seen enough of her to know what she is," Anoel replied, turning to pull the door open just a crack to get ready to leave.

She was the kind of person Anoel knew well, and knew just how dangerous it could get with what they could become.

"She's a woman who will stop at nothing until she gets what she wants. That's the only thing that matters to her."

"She's also acting out of character…" Ray muttered in reply, and for the first time, displaying an emotion.

He was unsure of something, confused even.

"This is bad."

Not like she was expecting it to be good. "Being forced into a corner is always bad."

"She's trying to bait me out…"

"Of course she is."

It's what Ano would do.

"Most traps only work when they can ensure total control. But this is the only chance we'll have to know where she is and when she'll be there," Anoel continued, hating how every word falling from her lips garnered more and more weight, "It was an open invitation. I wouldn't have come to you if I knew for sure you'd have no idea where she'd be right now."

"Then you've made the right decision, because I think know where she is."

That was all she was looking for from him, "Then take us there."

* * *

Night fell as quickly as a cold storm began to brew over downtown Vale.

Raindrops fell against the concrete ground, heavily pelting away at the metal containers scattering the docks and beating into the slow rise and fall of newly rampant waves off the coast.

Water pooled and filled the cracks at their feet, coursing through puddles and drainage grates as Anoel and Ray approached an abandoned warehouse by the docks.

It hadn't been used in years.

That's what the authorities said anyway.

It had been an old safehouse, used by Quinn, Ray, and Lylac years ago.

And from the cold, lamenting look hidden beneath a violet veil in Ray's eyes, what took place here was digging up memories he'd much rather suppress.

"Quinn came back to Vale to make a statement," he spoke lowly, eyes staring up at the imposing metal walls of the building before them, draped in the dreary shadows of dark clouds, "But whether that was to haunt us for what happened, or to finish what she started… I don't know."

"She's in town, and we're here to finish all this for her," Anoel returned, cold clothes clinging to her skin beneath the black cover of her hat.

She wasn't in the right mindset to keep herself dry from the rain, nor did she want to be. She wanted to feel numb.

"She'll always have motives." Motives they were already playing into. She recognized that, "But there's little we can do about them. The best we can do is stop them."

"I've always hated secrets…" Ray muttered as he took the first step toward the warehouse.

"Everybody has them," Anoel muttered back, staring up at the warehouse's dark silhouette before moving forward with him. She knew that more than anyone.

They approached the shutter doors, Ray stopping just before them with an apprehensive expression on his face.

"They've been used," He ran his gloved finger along the seam before examining them, "The dirt that should be here has been displaced."

His hand eventually retracted, gaze drawing back out to harden against the warehouse walls.

"She's here."

The confirmation only made this feel all the more dangerous… because Anoel couldn't sense her, "She's hiding her heat signature if she is. But I can tell the mechanism to open these doors was used in the past few hours."

Anoel gazed up to the top of the large set of doors, narrowing her gaze.

"The cables are still warm."

Her eyes eventually traced along the wall and its windows soon after, climbing its way to the building's rooftop.

"She already knows we're coming, but she doesn't strike me as someone to trap an entrance. Not after inviting us over." A woman like that wanted more satisfaction.

"Doesn't matter how we get in. Like you said, she's inviting us in," Ray replied evenly, "Doesn't mean she doesn't have traps laid out on the inside though."

"I'm fully expecting traps, but you know her far more than I do," Anoel returned, turning her gaze to sweep down the side of the building for other possible entrances. Mainly just for the sake of finding a quick exit, "But I would think she's confident enough to see herself without a need for them, once inside…"

"I guarantee she has traps inside, but she won't let them take the glory for her," Ray said as he took a step back from the shutter door. "They'll be designed to stun, not kill."

"Good to know…" Anoel sighed, shifting her weight to her other leg as she finally brought her dull gaze back to the rain-covered door, "You ready?"

Ray let a sigh escape him momentarily as he maintained a hardened gaze on the entrance, "As I'll ever be…"

He crouched down and gripped the bottom of the shutter, his hands clamping down on the metal before lifting it just enough to slip inside.

"And Anoel? If we make it out of this alive… I'll buy you a drink."

* * *

' _Anoel, you've been gone for over 24 hours now. Where are you?'_

Arex frowned.

Kit was still busy trying to find a place to hide all of their payment.

The general rule Anoel always told her was that if she didn't respond in an hour, she was either in trouble or having an important meeting with a contact.

It's been three hours since she sent that message.

And she was still gone.

"Special delivery!"

A knock came from the door, and from the voice, Arex donned a confused look as she peered over to Kit then slowly slipped off her bed.

It was Dante.

"Erm, hang on," she spoke out, quickly ushering Kit and the case to the bed as the two shoved the lien-filled black suitcase down next to all of Arex's storage boxes.

As soon as that slid out of view, Arex let their blanket drape down to cover that particular place beneath the bed and made her way to the door.

"Need something?" she asked, pulling the door open to see why Dante was stopping by. And why he's delivering something.

"I bring gifts. And also because I needed to get away for a bit. Not even I can entirely handle those rascal siblings of mine…"

They… seemed like a handful, but Arex couldn't honestly relate to that. "Well, what makes this room a good place to get away? And why the gifts?"

Arex stepped aside as she asked those questions, seeing if he wanted to enter the room or not.

If he wanted to hide, this was probably the last place anyone would think he'd be.

"You guys are nice to talk to. And fun to a degree. Of course, your leader would be plotting every second of my demise, which would never happen mind you, but still, you guys are pretty fun."

Arex just quirked a delicate brow. That last part was entirely understandable, Niro did that all the time, but the first two parts were… weird to hear, "Not that I don't believe you, but Kit can't exactly talk and I'm terrible at holding up a conversation."

"Still fun. I haven't had to bring out sign language since my voiceless friend got her voice back. Whole story with witches I need to tell you guys about someday. And you're pretty fun to hang out with in your own way. Even if you're a bit awkward around people."

Awkward was an understatement. But Arex let him in either way, letting the door shut behind him as she took a few steps into the room.

" _You're pretty fluent with sign language, so that explains why you know it so well,"_ Kit cut in, strolling over to take the small basket from Dante's grasp with a flick of an ear, then padded away.

"Guess we need to make time to hear it at some point, then," Arex replied quietly, watching Kit plop herself back down onto their bed to start plucking wrapped items out of his gift basket of baked sweets, "Still, kind of weird to show up just to talk without wanting something."

She was used to people having ulterior motives. A social life was strictly online for her, or just limited to inter-team communication.

Which… extended as far as blood relations and her direct partner.

That reminded her too. She glanced down to the scroll still in her hand, the light on it still dim and unblinking.

No new messages.

"Meh, I don't want anything to be honest. Just want to strike up a bit of conversation is all. And make friends. Are we friends actually?"

"Probably not," Arex answered honestly, if also a bit distractedly, "Might eventually be, though. Have you seen Anoel at all over the past two days, by any chance?"

It was a bit abrupt and sudden, but he got around, didn't he?

He had to have seen her.

Still recovering from the last statement, he looked like he was carefully thinking about it, "Two days… Is that… unusual behavior?"

"Not for her," Arex replied, "But being unresponsive is. She's an info-broker. She's always checking her scroll, so it's weird for her to leave a message for so long without responding, even if she's busy."

"Huh…" he said looking off to the side, checking the display of his holographic scroll.

It was the first time he seemed puzzled…

"Last I saw her was yesterday night at Nosferatu's bar when… Actually, I'm leaving that last bit out. But yeah, I saw her then. She seemed to be doing okay. Nothing wrong or anything."

It almost felt off, the way he said that last part, "Was she with anyone?"

"Know anyone called Ly?"

Arex knew the name well. Anoel liked to talk and think about her, so it wasn't a surprise to hear she was with her last night.

It really wasn't much help.

"Was anyone else there?" There had to be a reason why she's been away for this long. Even when Anoel's with Ly, she finds time to respond to her own sister.

"Just me, my partner, and that bundle of pure joy TA from Dravus' class. Apparently she took Inuba out for a girls day out, which turned into a girls night out. They ended the day with going to Niro's bar, and I just happened to walk by."

Dravus' TA? Why did a teacher's assistant take a student out for something like that? "Okay, still, it doesn't really sound like something that'd give Anoel trouble or keep her… Was that all that happened? Just a talk?"

It still felt like something was being left out.

She had no idea what, though. She wasn't that good with Anoel's semblance, for how little she's used it.

"After your sister tried smooching my partner, yeah, it was just talking. Getting to know each other more in a basic sense. Got to start somewhere, right?"

She couldn't tell if he was lying. But she _felt_ like there was something wrong with what he was saying.

And that was only making her more worried.

"Doesn't surprise me, but… Anoel didn't come back to the room last night, so she probably stayed with Ly. She's just been inactive since."

There was a small chance that she was on a job. The meetings she has with Ly tend to lead to that, or just ways to source certain pieces of information.

That, and Arex also wouldn't put it past Anoel to just visit Ly for the sake of visiting her.

None of that explained the lack of any kind of response though. And it didn't help that Arex couldn't get ahold of GHOST either.

"Well, she is an info-broker right? She could just be working a lengthier job than usual. After all, I did ask her some time ago if she could find out about certain matters for me of a complex nature. Not sure if she took it seriously though…"

"She doesn't take a lot seriously. And she'd warn me if she was going to be away for a while." The reason being to avoid _worrying_ Arex about her running off and disappearing for some amount of time.

Things she tended to worry about.

Like now.

"Hmmm… You must _really_ like your sister."

"Well, yeah, she's my sister," Arex returned easily, checking her scroll again.

Still nothing.

"I'm just worried about her. She likes to get into trouble and there's usually nothing I can do about it."

"Well, us older siblings tend to make it that way. Most of the time unintentionally," he said with a soft smile.

"It doesn't help that it still worries and scares me when she does…" And the way she always ensured Arex couldn't get in harm's way to help her made it even worse.

"Well, have no fear. I'm sure she's fine."

Sure. Like that helped at all.

"Just as much as we get into trouble, we just as quickly get out."

Arex knew that better than most with Anoel's way of life. But it still didn't help hearing it.

"Well, I've got a small errand to run now that I remember. If I see her, I'll patch her in immediately for you."

Yeah… she'd like that, " _If_ you see her. But thank you."

He left the room with a small wave to both her and the kitsune, their door closing softly behind him as Arex stood there with her scroll.

She needed to get ahold of GHOST somehow.

A small rustle came from the bed though, and Arex turned her gaze up to see Kit's tails flicking back and forth.

A warm cinnamon roll sticking out of her mouth.

Arex just sighed, "I'll get you a napkin…"

* * *

Anoel slipped inside as he held the door open, disappearing into the darkness of the warehouse as she stood herself back up.

Her eyes slowly began to adjust, night vision beginning to kick in as the dim light threading through the door behind her slowly closed once Ray slipped inside as well.

A faint glow emanated from his irises as she took a glance back to him, his hand lowering the door to silently rest back against the ground before the two returned their attention to the rest of the interior.

It was more of a factory than a warehouse, decades-old machines lining the warehouse floor, making corners tight and the pathways tighter. Multiple overhanging catwalks stretched across the ceiling, making for an easy ambush attack.

Shipping crates hung from stubborn, rusted steel cables, suspended in the air for god knows how long.

The perfect layout to defend and plan with.

"I shouldn't have to tell you to keep your eyes open, but chances are she already knows we're here and she's waiting to spring something," Ray whispered as he took Anoel's flank.

"Then we just have to make sure we can take whatever she springs," Anoel muttered back, keeping her voice breathless as her grip on her sword's handle stayed as tight as it was outside, "I still don't sense her heat, or any residual heat she'd make. Why?"

Ray's eyebrows furrowed, "It's her suit. I designed its material to isolate nearly 100% of an individual's body heat for sub-zero environments, then dump any excess heat into a heatsink which can be ejected at will. You won't sense her until she's right in your face."

He drew one of his pistols and pointed it forward.

"But I have proximity and motion sensors. If she gets within a certain distance, she'll light up like a firework."

"Well, at least _you'll_ react then," Anoel replied, knowing she was walking into this blind and hinging on Ray to react first to any kind of approach from Quinn. But with how this was going, it was more likely they'd spring a trap first before drawing her out at all.

So she started to move forward, keeping her steps quiet and slow, but conscious of wherever her weight was centered to be able to change her movements as quickly as possible.

"You have the benefit of above-average hearing. You're not completely useless. I'd rather be in this environment with a faunus like yourself than another human," Ray replied as he checked every corner they passed.

"Faunus, huh?" Anoel questioned, quirking a delicate brow as she kept her gaze and attention sweeping around their environment in front of and around her, "Took you long enough to bring that up, considering I never gave anything away. Was it Arex?"

"If either of you were trying to hide it, you didn't do a very good job, your affinity covers scans, but your sister fails to keep up in that regard," Ray countered. "Not that I don't care about your anatomies, but I don't treat faunus any differently than I do with humans. As far as I'm concerned, you're all a pain in my ass."

"Even the cyborg gets defensive about his opinions on the Faunus," Anoel commented with a light smile, cocking her head for a moment before shaking it. "I don't blame her. She doesn't know how to hide it."

Though, Anoel knew some part of Arex didn't actually want to keep it hidden.

She was more afraid of what she could do than what she was.

"If it's all the same to you, I don't like the term 'cyborg', I prefer augm-"

A small, almost inaudible click suddenly echoed throughout the silent warehouse floor.

"Shi-"

Ray's body grew shrouded as a focused, loud explosion suddenly detonated beneath his right foot, sending a cloud of metallic particles up into the air that forced a quick arm up to Anoel's eyes to keep the shrapnel out.

The haze threw Ray into a coughing fit that lasted for just over two seconds before they both heard a metallic ringing approaching from behind Anoel's back.

She immediately twisted out of the way in a blind step, something thin and sharp cutting through her jacket's sleeve as she caught a glimpse of the long projectile fluidly snapping toward Ray in front of her.

"Block!"

Ray's eyes widened as he quickly crossed his forearms in front of his body, the projectile glancing off the gauntlets hidden beneath his sleeves and losing its momentum as it slacked, fell to the ground, then rapidly retracted to wherever it came from.

It was a bladed whip…

Anoel hated whip users.

Her eyes stung, but she quickly tried to stop the weapon's return with a stomp of her boot, missing its tip by just half a second.

Where it originated from was still veiled by the dispersion of dust and particles from the explosion.

"The bitch is using chaff mines, I'm blinded," Ray growled as he wiped his eyes with his sleeves and shook his head erratically, "My sensors are fucked, Anoel. I keep getting feedback."

"Well that's what chaff mines _do_ ," Anoel replied back, keeping her narrow eyes toward the source of the whip as she stepped back toward Ray.

Another noise sounded, but it was the latch of a switch snapping into place and a humming of heat and light suddenly coming to life above them.

A spotlight suddenly beamed down at them in the fading dust, abrasively melting into the darkness of the warehouse.

"You really should have left the conversation for the journey here."

The feminine voice that echoed across the warehouse was filled with a sadistic tone, the same condescending one Anoel knew from the night at Niro's bar.

"Hope you're enjoying my little gift for you, Ray. Couldn't make it too easy now, could I?"

Ray's movement froze with anticipation, eyes widening and scanning the area around them.

Anoel wanted to move forward and find the source of the voice, but knew she both needed Ray and couldn't leave him blind on his own. Especially not while the chaff mine effects were still most potent.

So she slowly drew one of her daggers from the holsters at the small of her back, by her waist, keeping to a defensive position in front of the boy to stay in the crossfire.

"Are you looking to kill us or gloat?" Anoel asked, left dagger down at her side as her right hand stayed on her sheathed sword.

"Actually… I'm looking to thank you, info-broker…" the voice replied, "you couldn't have made my job any easier than you just have. Quite literally _escorting_ Ray here like you've just done. So _very_ helpful of you."

The _info-broker_ grit her teeth as she shook her head slowly, "Escorting him to you is far from what I've done. And if you're looking to thank me, why don't we have a little face to face conversation then? I always _love_ those."

Quinn chuckled from the shadows, "You're trying to convince yourself that you're doing the right thing, and yet, I don't think you quite realize that you've betrayed her."

Oh, Anoel _knew_ that all too well, and it hurt her to do it. But it was better than the alternative…

Anything was better than seeing Lylac dead, whether that was from Quinn's hands or her own.

Ray stayed silent during the exchange, drawing his secondary pistol and keeping both of them extended in different directions.

"I'm willing to bet Lylac will be mortified to hear that her _only_ _friend_ consciously sacrificed her cousin in a pathetic attempt to quickly solve a situation that's way over her head… a pity, really…"

She didn't have much choice, "You and I both know there weren't many courses of action here. So stop selling yourself short."

Anoel kept her attention around them, knowing it was easy to project a voice wherever it needs to be whenever the recipient couldn't see its source.

"You knew this was going to happen. You _planned_ for it," Anoel continued. But nobody could plan for _everything_.

"You underestimate just how much I know, _Anoel._ And when this is over, and you're nothing but a heap by my feet… I'll make sure your sister knows how utterly _powerless_ you really were…"

"I came here expecting to die, didn't I?" Anoel asked, sweeping her dagger to the side to flick a small flame into the ground, "I've never cared about what I am. She knows that. It'll be nothing new to her."

The phoenix's eyes glowed as she tossed another flicker the other way, each ember melting into the foundation of the warehouse as the concrete around them began to simmer and crack.

"But I wouldn't bother going after her. She gets emotional about these kinds of things," Anoel stated blandly, tossing another light ahead of them and into the floor, "She'll kill you on sight."

Ray's gun slowly started to move behind her, his head raising, "Then let's hope she doesn't have to, shall we?"

As soon as he finished speaking, he shattered the spotlight hanging above them with a shot of his pistol and blanketed the warehouse back into shadow.

The faintest clink of a metal pin was pulled before a metallic bounce cut into the room, Ray grabbing Anoel's arm to turn her away just as the device slid into the total darkness of the cluttered interior and detonated.

White light flashed in a concussive ring, rattling the shelves and lights in a dull, shaking bang just before the three points of light in the ground around them began to break the concrete surrounding their epicenters.

"Outside. _Now_."

Ray broke through the door first, shooting a hole through its center to weaken it before throwing himself into a running kick to warp it outward.

Anoel leapt through the opening behind him just as a tremoring quake shook the ground, the girl falling into a roll as dust and shattering glass plumed into the air from the warehouse's windows.

The ground beneath them immediately began to grow unstable, the large cracks forming inside starting to shatter and web outward into the docks and asphalt around the warehouse as the building began to break and crumble.

Anoel's eyes flashed orange as a dull light inside blindingly shot through the broken windows and openings in the walls just inside, one last tremor quaking out from the center of the building before its foundation crumbled entirely…

And the warehouse caved in on itself, crashing to the ground and sending a wave of dust and wind scattering into the open air of the rainy night.

"Think any of that hit her?" Anoel asked.

"It's statistically impossible that it didn't," Ray affirmed evenly, "but if she survived shaped charges going off in her face, this was nothing but a minor inconvenience. You might have only just pissed her off…"

"Better than fighting her on turf she had the advantage in," Anoel returned, "At least it gave us a _slightly_ better chance of beating her."

"You know, Anoel… if I had known you intended to bring the whole fucking building down on top of her," Ray began, still catching his breath as he swallowed, "I would have brought a rocket launcher with me instead."

"I doubt she's the kind of girl to let herself get hit by a rocket," Anoel replied, keeping her gaze on the smoking rubble as the rain pelted down on her blazing fire.

"No… but it would have done all this a _lot_ quicker."

A silhouette suddenly formed in the light of the flames in front of them, a feminine figure slowly walking toward them as she clapped her hands slowly.

When she passed through the cloud of dust, both Ano and Ray could see the slight, condescending smirk strewn across the pale face of their adversary. Her eyes were hidden behind the peak of her officer's cap.

"Well, that's certainly one way to start a party," Quinn said nonchalantly, dusting herself off.

* * *

 **When in Rome surrounded by Romans, tear down their home turf and fight them all on even grounds. And by that, I mean blow up their coliseum and piss them off.**

 **Yeah… well, it was her best plan, anyway.**

 **Change up the game just enough to make it fair.**

 **Or as fair as it'll ever get.**

 **Still no Niro, but there's a good reason for that. His scene will come up after this fight goes down, which'll be interesting to write.**

 **Next chapter will quite literally consist of the fight against Quinn, so you have that to look forward to. I think its conclusion will be fit in, but we'll see. I don't want to overload a chapter's word count.**

 **Either way, you can** **look forward to that.**

 **For now,** _ **Favorite**_ **and** _ **Follow**_ **.**

 **I look forward to seeing** _ **REVIEWS**_ **for this. You'll be introduced to a LOT of concepts of mine. Feel free to give me your thoughts.**

 **Cya XP**


	42. Impaled

Rogue Huntsman

Impaled

«»

"Hard to have a party when the host hides away in her lonely bedroom," Anoel countered.

"Oh, but it's so much _fun_ playing cat and mouse. Surely someone of _your_ career choice would understand?" Quinn asked pointedly.

"I agree with that statement," Anoel replied with a shift in her stance, tilting her soaked hat up to rest her daggered hand on her hip, "but I'm also not a one-tracked sociopathic killer."

"Killer? Yes. One-tracked? Perhaps. But a sociopath?" Quinn paused as her smirk slowly fell. "That's not the word I would use to describe someone who's waited as long as I have to take back what belongs to them."

The woman then let her hands drift toward the two metal coils resting on her hips.

"I've spent an awfully long time trying to get what I want, and I won't be lectured by a hypocrite who knows very little about a very big situation."

Anoel's gaze carefully watched the woman's hands as she quirked her own brow, caution dripping from her eyes as quickly as streams of water fell from her hat. "Then why don't you enlighten me instead of play the vague game you keep hiding behind? You _need_ Ray for a reason. Whether that's to kill him or use him, nobody knows _why_ but _you_."

"That's exactly the point, sweetheart. Why risk compromising my objective to settle the curiosity of someone who lives and breathes information? I find that a little counterproductive."

Quinn had dropped the playful approach to this as seriousness swept into the atmosphere. The gravity of the situation fell into place as soon as the mood changed.

"You brought this curiosity upon yourself when you spent weeks forcing us into slavery," Ray retaliated aggressively instead. "You brought this curiosity when we had to suffer through long nights of sneaking and hiding from authorities. You brought this when you _manipulated_ us into killing innocents."

Ray threw his arms to his sides as he took a step closer to her, breaking droplets of water falling around him before they could pool at his feet. Inching his way forward as anger boiled inside him.

"And for what?! Dare I ask?! For some _hidden objective_ that you play close to the chest because you fail in every regard to put an ounce of trust into two scared kids running from a daunting responsibility?!"

Anoel held out her own arm, stopping his slow advance with the pommel of her dagger to keep him in place. They _needed_ to fight together, or die separately trying to fight in turns.

"I'll _kill you_ for what you did to Lylac! Being forced to bear witness to you torturing her for the _stupidest_ of mistakes, mistakes that weren't even her own!"

Anoel's grip on her dagger began to nearly sear through the heated metal, but her eyes never moved anywhere away from Quinn's face as she forced herself to stay in place.

God she wanted to take that woman's head off with hearing that…

"I will kill you _again_ and _again_ for what you did! Driving her to the point of _suicide_ because she was forced into thinking that she was _worthless!_ " Ray was growing increasingly unstable as the grip around his pistols tightened. "I'm not sorry for killing you then, and I won't be sorry for doing it now, because when you're nothing but a red smear across the concrete beneath your feet, _no one_ is going to miss you."

Anoel pushed Ray back a bit with the hand she had pressing her pommel against his chest, hoping his infectious rage wasn't blinding him…

Or her.

Even though she could feel her own rage seething behind clenched teeth.

She wanted her dead. But Quinn's manipulation of those around them _played_ others into her hands… And it certainly _felt_ like they were playing back into them here and now.

Ano brought down the building knowing that. But they didn't escape certain death inside just to stroll back into it outside.

"I hope you can channel that hate into unbridled skill, otherwise _calm_ the _hell_ down," Anoel muttered, slowly taking her dagger away from his chest.

A hot breath left Ray's nose as he closed his eyes. "This isn't hatred yet…"

Ray's tone dripped with venom as the light in his opening eyes flared and violet hardlight surged out of his hand, immediately snaking its way toward stacked shipping containers and grabbing hold of them before he threw his arm forward and launched them at Quinn.

They were done talking.

Anoel dipped down in the same moment of the violet surge and darted forward, skipping lightly over the rubble between them to meet Quinn as those containers were landing.

Three shots rang out behind her as she ran, bullets narrowly grazing her shoulders and head to slip by and burrow through the air toward Quinn as well.

When Quinn's hands finally grasped the metal coils by her hips they immediately shifted into a pair of thin, light swords.

She leapt into a flip toward the bullets and Anoel's dash, rapier-like blades effortlessly cutting the rounds out of the air just as one of the thrown crates crashed into the ground behind her.

Anoel's own body lit up in a hazy, fiery light in the rain of the storm, tilting herself up in her run to meet Quinn on her way down, dragging her dagger to grind up the side of one of the woman's swords to force it into the other.

Eight more shots rang out as Anoel invaded Quinn's guard, lodging her dagger's blade into the hilt of Quinn's outermost weapon to try to twist it out of her grasp in an overhead flip.

But Quinn smirked and flipped with her, drawing herself back to slash through Ray's shots before forcing the tip of her sword back down to lodge Ano's dagger in place.

Rain and containers smashed down in curtains around them as Anoel let go of her dagger and swiftly drew her other out of its sheath in a low crouch, driving its edge toward Quinn's stomach, but its tip slammed into Quinn's body with a resounding vibration running through the phoenix's arm.

It felt like she struck metal-

A swift knee struck her harder than her dagger drove home, knocking Ano's head back with something that _definitely_ felt like an unbreakable bone as the info-broker was thrown backward, her first dagger getting tossed aside into the rubble.

Dazed eyes grew wide through the pain as one of Quinn's blades segmented and drew into her whip, silver steel snapping forward to catch Anoel's falling form by the waist and yank her back, constricting edges cutting into her.

Ano's body bled and stung as she was drawn in, the woman drawing her arm back to meet Anoel's form with a brutal punch, but her strike was slammed aside just as quickly as Quinn's body was careened into one of the containers behind her.

Ray's leg lowered to the ground after its brutal encounter with Quinn's ribcage, arm reaching up to swat aside a heavily falling shipping container as he waited for the woman to come back out.

His kick tore Quinn's grip from her weapon, yanking Anoel into the ground but disarming her in the process.

The info-broker's eyes were met with a gloved hand as Ray offered to help her up. "I warned you about getting comfortable up close. Her semblance negates your attacks like they are nothing."

 _Really_? She hadn't _noticed_.

Ano coughed up a slight splatter of blood as her body shimmered with aura, taking Ray's hand as she stood. Her other soon reached down to yank the tip of Quinn's whip out of her body with a grimace, doing the same with the rest of the entwining metal once the end was out.

"W-Would've been nice to know _before_ the fight," Anoel muttered, tugging the last shard out of its embedded place in her skin to drop it with a clatter to the floor, along with the rest of the whip.

Anoel quickly slammed her boot down onto the base of the blade itself with a heated heel, superheating the metal of the coiled sword before overloading its fine-tuned structure just far enough to shatter the entire weapon.

Before either of them had any time to revel in their small victory, the weapon's twin shot out of the hole in the container, striking Ray in his right shoulder and forcing the boy back a bit as he grabbed the blade. He quickly wrapped it around his forearm just before wrenching it backward.

He pulled its wielder toward them, who in the midst of her flight, planted a hand on his shoulder and flipped over him, yanking her weapon in return and pulling it out from Ray's grasp.

The tip of the blade caught him in the cheek, cutting effortlessly into his skin and drawing a little blood.

Ray didn't even flinch, his aura patching him up moments after.

Quinn's landing was covered by a sweep of Anoel's legs, putting as much force into the movement as she could, knowing the woman had an unnatural amount of resilience to anything she tried to do to her.

Her dagger wouldn't be much use anymore, its only function now deflection… considering it couldn't even pierce the woman's skin.

Quinn hit the ground on her back before rolling backward into a crouched position, holding her sword up and behind her in a defensive stance as she placed her fingers on the ground and her momentum ceased.

"This is a pretty disappointing performance for two well-established fighters like yourselves, I was expecting a more _fiery_ offense," Quinn mocked as she raised herself and flicked her sword down.

Anoel watched a drop of blood strike the ground in a small splatter, the tip of her own dagger slightly blunted from its earlier collision. "Sorry honey, I don't get hot for just about anyone."

The small blade of her dagger glinted for a moment in the moonlight as she considered sheathing it, her gaze flicking to her sword's handle. But a hard blink brought her gaze back away from it as she met Quinn's own again.

She had some sort of cancellation force… or something similar to that. If she brought out her fire, she doubted Quinn would even feel it.

"And here I was expecting a little fireworks…" She sounded disappointed, but it went without saying that Quinn didn't care as her gaze turned to Ray. "Hopefully you'll be more inclined to entertain."

Ray's eyes narrowed in response as he moved into a canted stance. He was reluctant to answer anything she said.

"Oh, come now, you both can't expect to win if you don't pull out your strongest tools," Quinn returned, shifting in her own stance as Anoel walked herself up to Ray's side.

Tools aren't what defines someone's strength, though.

Anoel knew that better than most…

She grew up with Niro, after all.

The phoenix shared a sparing look at Ray for just a second, before turning back to Quinn's smirk, eyeing her for a few long seconds after.

There had to be a real reason behind that mask… there had to be something Quinn wanted in all this. She wouldn't have spent a year of her life investing in the abilities of two children if she didn't.

And it had to be something out of reach from her that she _still_ needed Ray for some proportional part of her goal.

That part alone bothered her… But what sickened Anoel more than that was the possibility of this woman turning back on Ly and deciding to take care of a possible loose end.

One of the few people who knew about her existence.

"You've done enough to the two of them," Anoel spoke quietly, slowly lowering her dagger back down to her side as she lowered her other hand down to the pommel of her sword.

A sword she held a lot of sentiment with…

The weapon she only ever drew when another life was going to stain its steel with more tainted red.

She'd hoped there was some small part of Quinn she'd be able to read in the fight before this, anything that'd convince her that she didn't need to die, but nothing slipped except the willingness to kill in pursuit of a single goal.

And that goal was still kept hidden. Anoel couldn't reach it through normal means, nobody could. Quinn safe-guarded it for some reason.

Anoel hated that.

"You should be more worried about what I'll do to you if you continue this little charade…" Quinn's sinister tone was more indicative of her intent to kill as her smirk faded.

Ray's arm shot out to the side in Anoel's peripheral vision, followed quickly by the mechanical shifting of something else hidden beneath his sleeve.

With a solid snap, the handle of a sword shot into his hand, leather-bound and unused. Four surrounding plates moved to extend outward from its hilt, expanding into a blade with no edges.

"You expect to kill me with a hollow sword?" Quinn questioned, almost amusedly. "You're quite the arrogant one, aren't you?"

A vibrant light illuminated the entire sword, its violet, burning glow rapidly filling the core of the blade and generating a razor-sharp edge.

An action Ray smirked at when Quinn said nothing more.

"Not quite."

"Cute. But you and I both know how well your hardlight's worked out in the past."

The snap of sweeping metal cut into the surroundings like a sudden strike of lightning in the rain, and Anoel was the first to throw herself down into a dodging bend as the cutting edge of Quinn's whip cut through the air.

Ray's newly formed blade snapped down to counter, his frame stepping into it as he slammed Quinn's whip into the floor with the edge of his own sword.

An attack that quickly receded as soon as it was deflected.

"I'd ask for ideas against an invincible woman," Anoel muttered, standing back up from the soaked ground, "but we'd just be wasting our breath. Instead, just give me something sharp to land on."

"I'll keep her entertained, you just wait for an opening."

Anoel watched as Ray stepped in front of her and slowly moved forward, her own eyes watching Quinn for a moment before she started her slow pace around them and to the side.

Quinn's eyes flicked to her for a moment, but a hardlight spine shooting out of the ground brought her brandishing blade back to her front to cut its razor tip down its center.

She was beginning to circle him in return, but Anoel knew the woman's peripheral's and senses were still partially on her.

She needed them to be elsewhere, just for a moment.

Metal clashed as Ray deflected a swift jab for his torso, Anoel's gaze catching the sparks of hardlight slamming into Quinn's blade as he batted the attack to the side.

Anoel started to dip down as Ray brought his sword back with a horizontal swing, a counterattack that Anoel barely saw save for the streak of light burning behind his glowing blade.

Quinn saw it though, and it almost looked like she was expecting it, dropping herself to the floor, his hardlight blade just shy of grazing off a layer of her skin before she sprang back up and kicked him in the stomach.

Something he just tanked through as Anoel continued her slow circling, trying to get behind Quinn and out of sight as another streak of light blazed through the air to force Quinn into a momentary dodge.

She was fast… but she was also careful not to get hit. Anoel's blade was one thing, but that was just normal steel.

Ray's hardlight was a different story altogether.

The fact that it could cut cleanly through a steel wall gave it that kind of backing… but Anoel had no idea what that could do to someone like Quinn.

For all Anoel knew, the woman could _still_ take a full stab from his hardlight and shake it off like it was nothing. But seeing how hard the woman was keeping to avoiding the hits, it was starting to give Anoel just that tiny bit of confidence that her plan would actually do something.

Still...

She watched as something started to boil in Ray's eyes.

The more Quinn dodged, the more rage and anger started to burn and fester in his irises, his focus narrowing in on Quinn's every action as his own attacks quickly sped up their momentum.

He was being precise with his aim, more than Anoel knew he usually did, all of his jabs narrowing in on some kind of nerve intersection or pressure point on her body, trying to stun her as his aggression rose.

Cuts were forming on his body when Anoel finally got into position, Ray ignoring every bleeding opening she stabbed into him and through him as he kept up his relentless assault.

 _Come on…_

 _Just give me something to work with._

Anoel closed her eyes for a moment as she took a breath, sliding her dagger back into its sheath as a hard, jagged clang vibrated into the air.

Her sharp gaze opened again when Ray stumbled back, her slim hand wrapping hesitant digits around the handle of her own sword as she started to tip forward in her low position on the ruined ground.

She hated drawing it…

She _despised_ drawing it.

The last time it saw any real action was when she cut through every last bandit of the group that traumatized Arex and took everything away from her.

It was made for that purpose alone.

But for this…?

Blood dripped to the ground as it slipped through the cuts in Ray's jacket, streams of it sliding down his arms beneath his sleeves as she watched.

She saw _him_. But… all she could imagine was Ly standing there in her _own_ blood, being put through her _own_ pain under the ire of Quinn's blade.

Pain Ray was soaking up so Ly didn't have to bear it anymore.

Anoel's breath left her in a shaky, quivering mess for just a moment. Her eyes watching as Ray struck the ground and forced shining violet lights out of its breaching cracks.

She'd always teased Arex for how emotional she got about the ones she deeply cared about… but that was because it ran in the family.

It always did.

It was a feeling Anoel grew to hate. Whether that was seeing it in Arex's eyes, or feeling it inside herself.

She learned to hate it.

Because it always meant someone was hurt.

Or worse.

The cascade of rainfall around her quieted down to a slow, softly beating rhythm as she grit her teeth. The hand she tightly wrapped around her sword's handle squeezed down as her other came to rest on the throat of her blade's scabbard.

Ly may not heal… she may never heal from what happened.

But…

Crimson metal peered through the crack of Anoel's hesitantly drawing hand, a longsword that hadn't breathed in the free, open air in a long time starting to glint in the falling rain.

She can put a stop to Ly having something to _heal_ from.

Or try to.

"You just had to show up and ruin everything…" Anoel muttered under her breath, the sound of the rain picking back up around her as her tight knuckles grasping her crimson weapon's handle drew white.

The ground beneath Quinn's feet ruptured, violet hardlight surging from beneath her to throw her into the air.

Anoel tipped herself forward before closing the distance between herself and Quinn in a fraction of a second, the air and the droplets of rain around her getting torn apart by the concussive push of her extending wings.

Fire blazed around her arms, shooting into the steel of her weapon as she ripped it out of its sheath and got beneath Quinn's slowly turning form in the air.

She couldn't use fire to blast the woman upward, but a billowing orange column of flame surged into the ground as Anoel throw _herself_ upward and lodged the edge of her blade around Quinn's central mass.

Hot metal seared the air around it as she brought them both straight into the air, evaporating the immediate area almost entirely from its drenched rainfall as she punched through the dark clouds above and dragged the edge of her molten blade across Quinn's skin.

Anoel threw the woman ahead of her with the swing, but all it cut through was the woman's clothes.

She knew it wasn't going to be enough, but it was never supposed to.

Quinn seemed to smirk as she righted herself in the air, but only one person had any real advantage in the openness of the sky.

Anoel surged forward with a curve and shove of her wings, beating Quinn's blade aside with an overwhelming difference in actual leverage before driving the tip of her sword against the woman's gut, forcing the both of them even higher.

"Why?" Anoel asked, driving her stab up to lock her edge and guard against Quinn's moving hilt to stop its retaliation.

Black wings pushed them further, but it only drew them closer to a balancing apex now that their momentum was cut off.

"Why do you _still_ need him?"

She hadn't even realized her vision was blurring, stinging from the hot tears trailing from the corners of her eyes.

She knew what she said, but she knew what she was feeling was stronger than the question she was asking.

 _Why did you_ hurt _her?_

Quinn stared into Anoel's gaze, a burning orange ring in her own irises as she frowned. "Because desperation pushes us to do what's necessary, Anoel. Regardless of who gets caught in the crossfire."

"Desperation for _what_?!" Anoel spat, twisting her sword to try to pry Quinn's weapon out of her grasp, but the two only started to roll in the air and fall back toward the ground.

"To find who I'm looking for," Quinn's reply was low and growled through grit teeth. There was a sentiment in her voice, one that drove her.

Something flashed in Anoel's eyes as they fought, spiraling down toward the brewing clouds far below.

Quinn finally let something slip.

But the click of a pressed button on the woman's hilt sounded in Anoel's ears, something she couldn't have reacted to even if she tried as a burst of lightning ripped through the muscles of her body.

A firm kick struck her in the stomach and forced her downward, two bodies finally piercing the clouds as the bottoms of their brewing, dark sea glowed with a faint, violet light from somewhere below her.

 _Who…_

There was a who…

Anoel's wings were still dead, shocked into paralysis, but her gaze grew narrowed as another flash of gold struck down toward her and Quinn's whip clamped down around her, digging back into her body as the two fell.

More Dust flooded into her as Quinn kept her weapon lodged in place, keeping Anoel between herself and the tip of the towering, razor-sharp hardlight spire she asked Ray to build on the ground.

Its light flooded across the buildings and danced through the falling rain, numb fingers feeling her sword slowly leave her hand as she redirected all of her aura into her arm.

The re-channeled shield sent the rest of her body into a painful lock, the biting edges of Quinn's whip suddenly grinding into her flesh as she let out a pained scream.

She _just_ needed the smallest bit of movement in her hand to grasp her fingers around the sharp reaches of Quinn's whip to take a bloody hold of it.

As soon as she clamped her hand down, Anoel twisted the hard edges around her wrist before ripping it down toward her, throwing herself upward and Quinn downward as she crashed herself into the woman's falling frame.

The lightning passed from herself and into Quinn for a moment in shared agony, forcing her to shut off the electricity coursing through the metal in the last few seconds of their fall.

And it was just enough time to twist Quinn's back down toward the ground, Anoel forcing the woman's body to contact the tip of Ray's massive hardlight spire first at their terminal velocity plummeting into the ground.

But even with all that, Quinn's body crushed through the sharp tip and broke through the rest of the risen spear, the force knocking Anoel off from on top of Quinn's own falling body to plummet off to the side.

Quinn kept her grip of her weapon, pulling it up as Anoel fell to tear her embedded blades from around Anoel's waist in a vicious twist, dropping the phoenix from her weapon's grasp as she broke through the rest of Ray's spire at a slower speed than Anoel's drop.

Hardlight from the spire itself broke off and rushed toward Anoel's falling frame, accumulating on her landing trajectory and bundling together to form a secondary, much smaller spire that rapidly climbed to meet her halfway and eventually catch her to break her fall.

Anoel's gaze squeezed closed as she expected a hard collision, but the hardlight wasn't as hard and sharp as she thought it'd be.

It acted more like a pillow and warped to cushion her body, rather than shatter under her velocity.

It didn't save her from complete harm, but it negated a lot of the damage she would've received if she struck the ground with its collection of rubble from the collapsed building.

Anoel could hear the sound of her own sword striking the ground somewhere far off, hiding itself away on the other side of the spire as she groaned and opened her eyes.

Quinn managed to turn herself around in the spire somehow, her arm moving with her before rearing back then crashing downward at the rest of the structure.

The entire construct shattered into violet embers and sparks, each little illumination fading as they slowly fell and settled on the cold, soaking ground with the rest of the collected raindrops.

The woman herself landed with a hard thud of her boots, the linked blades of her sword coiling to the ground before she stood up slowly.

Unharmed, save for a silvery shimmer of aura.

"Is… that all… you've got?" her breathing was labored, even as she stood it was evident in her chest that she was exhausted from plowing all the way through the spear of hardlight.

Anoel's vision grew blurry as the rain came down around her, every muscle in her body aching and numb. But some parts of it felt warm, soaked with the water she lied in.

Or… was it blood...

A shadow stepped in front of her, and it took her a second to recognize Ray's defensive silhouette, her aura-less body suddenly feeling vulnerable as the last shimmer of her energy died away.

"Oh no, we're not done…" Ray replied grittily, holding his sword to the side. "So long as I'm still breathing, I won't ever be done. Especially not with you."

The boy held a protective stance before turning his head to the side, Anoel drowsily looking up to see a glance pointed down at her.

"Catch your breath, I'll take it from here."

"Y-yeah…" Anoel let her head fall back against the cold ground as she struggled to get oxygen into her system, the numbness spreading into her wings now, "j-just don't die."

Ray sighed. "That's the plan…"

Anoel's eyes slowly closed when he said that.

Sounds of metal clashing and movements breaking through the rain filled her ears as Ray engaged Quinn again, the intensity behind the two blades striking against one another growing as the phoenix's consciousness wavered.

* * *

Arex was pacing around the room now. Another hour had passed by with no kind of response from her sister.

Her black scroll still rested tightly in her clasped hand as she moved about, ebony hair bouncing and swaying as she padded around in her socked feet.

Kit's eyes stayed on her throughout the whole ordeal, probably because Arex caved and filled the kitsune in on what was worrying her so much.

And to make matters worse, GHOST was _still_ absen-

A small blue flash from the table by the bed caught Arex's attention as soon as it appeared, GHOST's robed form standing on her projector as her small head stared at a notification in front of her.

"Y-you're back!" Arex quickly made her way over and around the bed, marigold eyes still watching her in their own silent worry as Arex sat on the side of the bed closest to the hologram.

"I am. I had to watch over a system-wide update that could have broken a lot of things if something went wrong while unmonitored," GHOST replied courteously, her brows furrowing when she took a momentary glance at Arex. "Is something wrong?"

"That… sort of justifies it, I guess," Arex's grip grew tighter around her scroll as she lowered her gaze. "Anoel's been gone since all of yesterday. And she's been unresponsive too, which isn't like her."

"I wasn't sure whether to warn you or not, but if you're worried about your sister, I can try tracing her location for you," GHOST suggested. "If that's what you'd want, of course."

"P-please," Arex spoke softly with a small nod. She didn't have the skills yet to track a scroll of Anoel's caliber, and that always scared her whenever her sister disappeared.

GHOST nodded before a map of Remnant displayed behind her from the projector, the AI turning around to face it before her avatar flashed purple for a moment.

Two red lines, one from the top and the other from the left slowly scanned along the map before it pinged and they intersected on the Kingdom of Vale.

The map then zoomed into the kingdom, before the scanning process restarted.

"She's in the kingdom at least," GHOST spoke softly. "Not too far away either."

As she said that, the lines intersected again, this time on the docks in the industrial area.

"I found her, she's at the docks, but she's wi-"

An angry red notification flashed into existence in front of GHOST and the AI's expression immediately went from neutral to one of concern.

"Oh no…"

GHOST… never said that before, and that skyrocketed Arex's worries. "W-What? Who's she with?"

"No… no no…" GHOST opened the notification and her eyes went wide as she read it.

The text was illegible as the AI skimmed through the data, her head slowly shaking as her avatar flared green three times.

Colors Arex hadn't seen on her either.

"G-GHOST…" Arex's hand fell to the bed, fingers tightly gripping the blanket she sat on as her concerned gaze narrowed. "J-just _say_ something. What is it? What's wrong?"

GHOST turned to face her, her body still flashing green as she stared into Arex's eyes with serious worry. "Your sister's in trouble, _big_ trouble..."

Arex's breath locked as the AI's head turned to face the map, small hand dismissing the warning and starting another scan.

The scanning lines were golden this time, and as they crossed over the map, 5 gold dots appeared, each tied to a name.

Two dots were together by the upper-class district, labeled 'Prophet' and 'Snow'.

Two others were in the industrial district too, 'Pyro' and 'Knox'.

But the fifth…

It was at the docks.

Arex's eyes read the name next to the dot.

'Alpha'.

Alpha… they were with Anoel right now. But, why?

"W-Who's Alpha?" Arex muttered. Alpha was either there to hurt Anoel… or they were working together.

"The only Sentinel member you know…" GHOST replied in a whisper.

Ray...

"And he's badly hurt…"

Arex's grip on her sheets tightened further, only loosening just slightly when a soft weight pressed into her back and two slender arms wrapped around her from behind.

Kit's chin found its way onto her shoulder, but she didn't feel all too comforted.

Not like this…

The grip the phoenix held grew lax enough for her to let go of the bed, eyes slowly drawing back to the map to see Prophet's dot start to sporadically move across the map toward Ray and Anoel's location.

The blip disappeared and reappeared in rapid intervals, almost like it was lagging, but it was moving faster than the rest of the dots.

All other members were on their way too…

All but Snow's. Their dot stayed in place.

She… she needed to go too.

Arex reached a hand up to pat Kit between the ears, ushering her head off her shoulder before quickly standing, sliding a long military box out from under her bed.

The only one that contained a fully functional weapon, the same one she finished forging earlier when she came to Beacon.

"Stay where you are, Arex."

Arex's eyes flicked to where GHOST was standing to meet a hardened gaze.

Her avatar was fully green now, but flashed with two other colors too.

Orange and red.

"For your safety, I cannot let you leave this room… I'm sorry."

Arex's body froze as she stared down at her weapon's case, hands closing into fists before the sound of a lock clicking into place filtered into her hearing.

Her gaze transitioned up to their door, then to the window, only to see Beacon's emergency shutters lock down over the glass and shut out the night sky outside.

That blank gaze finally found its way to GHOST, the AI's gaze apologetic before her small avatar's head went back to the digital map.

Arex felt helpless all over again.

"P-Please… just let me fly to her…" Arex's voice was short of its usual breath, falling into a mutter as the fists she tightly closed up fell open.

"I can't… Protocol 1 dictates the protection of innocents must be followed," GHOST replied, eyes glued to the map. "Going there could get you hurt, or worse, considering I don't know what's going on."

"Anoel could already be hurt… o-or worse," Arex retaliated back, but her voice lost the power she was trying to convey through it, just breaking instead. "S-She's an innocent, isn't she?"

"She is, which is why I've dispatched other members of Sentinel to find her," GHOST responded. "But until I can determine whether it's safe for you to go to her, you _must_ remain here."

GHOST turned her body to face Arex fully, something that forced an already difficult resignation down on Arex even further.

"Please, trust me Arex, I wouldn't be doing this if there was a better alternative. I was entrusted to keep you safe, and for that reason alone, I need you to be in a place where I can watch over you."

Arex's lips drew into a thin line as she turned her shaky gaze back to the floor, her pale white irises starting to glisten before she could reach a hand up to wipe away the blurriness. "C-Can you promise me… that they can save her…?"

"Prophet is one of our best. If he can't save her, nobody can. I'm trying to establish a video feed now, to see what's going on," GHOST spoke calmly, her voice softer than before, but there was still concern laced in her speech.

Arex… had to believe that.

She turned her gaze back to the map, watching as Prophet's dot still shot across it in intervals, already closing in on her sister's location.

It was already too late for her to go too, even if she could've.

Her soft gaze traced back to the bed as her legs let her fall back onto its edge, her partner immediately tucking into her side as soon as she was sitting down.

Kit slipped Arex's scroll out of her loose grip, setting it aside as Arex's other hand dropped back against the bed, trying to find some comforting perch by gripping the soft fabric the two rested on.

"J-just… do whatever you have to, GHOST," she murmured, her eyes drifting back to the map as well while GHOST tried to pull up the feed on a separate screen.

"The feed is connecting now," GHOST responded. "Prophet is 15 seconds away, it won't be long until I have confirmation."

Static filled the screen until it finished connecting. When it cleared, it was blank, save for generated images.

It… looked like a heads-up display, with an aura meter, various other bars and a 2D image of a masculine body. Several areas of the body were flashing red, particularly the chest, and a warning flashed in the middle.

'Critical damage: Seek medical attention!'

GHOST's face contorted into a scared look when she read the warning, her body continuously flashing a multitude of colors.

What looked like eyelids suddenly opened, staring at the floor as their focus dipped, the individual in sight soaked with blood as they brought their hands up slowly.

Droplets of crimson liquid dripped from them, falling down and splashing against the wet ground.

To the left of the screen a cylindrical object came into view…

Blood seeped from where the object was embedded in his chest, its long shaft sticking out of his body like a peg.

H-He was… impaled…

GHOST's body started to twitch, still infrequently blinking and flickering as she stared, wide-eyed, at the feed.

"Ray, _no_ …" she murmured, a hint of fear in her voice, "Get up Ray…"

His eyes lost their focus and closed again, blacking out the screen for a few seconds before reopening.

"Ray _get up_!"

GHOST pleaded at the screen, but something told Arex that Ray couldn't hear her as his eyes looked ahead of him, trying to focus.

" _Come on_ Ray!"

A woman wearing an officer's cap and a black leather suit could be seen in Ray's vision, slowly making her way over to the downed form of someone else.

" _Get UP!_ "

Anoel…

Something was happening on the feed that Arex didn't understand as she watched Ray's eyes slowly focus on her sister, her body being highlighted in the augmented reality overlay.

He kept staring at her as a box appeared on the right of the screen, slowly loading a list of medical data.

Her aura was depleted, she had multiple severe cuts on her body, and her heart rate was beginning to slow as the unidentified woman kept walking toward her.

"Get _up_ Ray!" GHOST yelled at the screen, her eyes struck with fear.

 _G-GHOST…_

"You have to _get up_ and _fight_!"

Arex and Kitsuki watched as Ray looked down at the foreign object embedded in his chest, hands slowly moving toward its shaft to grip it tightly.

His knuckles whitened as his grip tightened around it before he began to pull it out, blood coating every inch as he steadily removed it from his body. Agonized grunting could be heard as he re-adjusted his grip, grasping at the bloodied shaft as it slowly came out.

The object fell to the ground with a clatter as soon as the tip was dislodged from his chest, water and blood splashing as he fell heavily to his knees and clutched at the hole in his body.

Blood seeped from between his fingers as he steadied himself with his other hand and his vision turned upwards at Anoel's limp form again, keeping her vitals in his heads-up display.

His gaze then returned to the spear he removed, reaching for it with the hand he planted against the ground.

A designated targeting system appeared in the middle of his vision, slowly marking the unnamed individual whose arm was lifting Anoel in the air by her throat.

Arex's fingers immediately tightened on her bedding, hands straining against the comforters as she stared blankly at the screen.

 _C-Come on, Ray..._

He grabbed the spear by its shaft and slowly rose to his feet, taking a single staggered step toward them as he raised it above his head, preparing to throw it.

The targeting was all over the place, but he was aiming for just one area.

 _P-Please… don't miss..._

He reeled back slowly, the targeting system locking onto the middle of the woman's chest, or as close to it as he could get…

With a yell, he launched the spear at the woman, before stumbling over and falling to his knees again.

The spear flew through the air, but missed the woman's chest, embedding itself in her right thigh instead.

She dropped Anoel as her gaze and hands snapped straight toward her leg, right before she collapsed on her knee and removed it with her aura shimmering around the wounded area.

"You just don't know when to _quit_ , do you?!" the woman shouted in pain as she looked at him with rage-filled eyes.

"He doesn't… h-he never does…" Arex muttered under her breath, eyes still staying locked on Anoel's crumpled and limp form on the ground.

Despite the situation, a small, weak chuckle could be heard from Ray, followed by choking.

Ray picked himself up again, left hand still tightly gripping his chest as he coughed out blood.

"You always have to _get back up!_ "

The woman paced her way toward him as he continued to chuckle.

Laughing in the face of death.

"You think you're going to be able to kill me with those injuries?! You're basically dead already!"

"B-better dead than _exposed…_ " Ray wheezed defiantly, his voice breathless. "I'm not trying to kill you anyway…"

The woman stopped her advance, standing in front of Ray with a look of confusion crossing over her face.

"I'm trying to _stall_ you…" his aura shimmered consistently around his wounded chest, despite the aura meter at the top of his heads-up display showing that he had 12 percent left.

Make that 11 percent…

Something hazy started to fill the screen though.

White, illuminated smoke silently lifted behind the woman, seeping into the air around her before the glint of a silver barrel appeared in the white cover at the back of her head.

Her gaze widened in alarm just before a loud, concussive blast blew the smoke away from behind her head, knocking her over as whoever was responsible disappeared and reappeared next to Anoel.

They lifted her in both arms and turned to face Ray, the smoke opening just enough to reveal Prophet's appearance in the display.

His eyes were hidden beneath a pair of wayfarer glasses, their dark glint only darker in the night sky. He was also wearing a black leather jacket with black jeans, no body armor of any kind…

Ray visibly nodded to him before his eyes returned to the woman.

"Game over…" he muttered, just loud enough for Arex and Kitsuki to hear him, before his knees buckled once more and he collapsed onto the ground.

The woman held her hands against the back of her head before her eyes snapped to the boy on the ground, slowly picking herself back up and taking a single step toward him.

But her body came to a halt as the stone in front of her cracked, cut off by a white longsword with black detailing, its blade stabbed into the ground between them.

A hand reached out from the brief, flashing streak of white and black, gripping the blade firmly to draw it from the broken concrete.

"Well well… Looks like you've been busy without me, guys…"

"Dante… he found her," Arex realized, eyes flicking to him through Ray's display.

He didn't just wait around until he bumped into her. He went out of his way to go after her.

He had to have known something was wrong too...

Prophet then teleported behind Dante, grabbing Ray by the arm as he held Anoel in the other.

"Get them out of here and send me their location after."

Prophet turned to nod at him before Ray's vision began to lose all focus and he closed his eyes.

"As for you… Why don't you and I have some fun instead?"

* * *

 **Sorry for the longer chapter. I didn't want to break up the fight scene or stall the conclusion of it until next chapter.**

 **Figured it'd be nice to see it all up front.**

 **Seeing as the chapter was long, I'll save you the displeasure of reading a long AN at the end of it. Or just skipping it altogether, which I do as well.**

 **On a completely unrelated not from the story altogether though...**

 **Anyone here read Citrus? I think I have a new addiction.**

 **If you haven't heard of it, I would look it up. But it's not for everyone.**

 ***totally hasn't been scavenging for good Citrus fics to read* Considering writing one.**

 **For now,** _ **Favorite**_ **and** _ **Follow**_ **.**

 **I look forward to seeing** _ **REVIEWS**_ **for this. You'll be introduced to a LOT of concepts of mine. Feel free to give me your thoughts.**

 **Cya XP**


	43. Recovery

Rogue Huntsman

Recovery

«»

Kit pushed Arex out the window as soon as GHOST unlocked it.

She wanted her to be fast. As fast as possible.

And that meant no bringing her along for the ride, despite being worried herself.

So the phoenix took off as soon as she could, clutching her scroll and holographic projector closely to her sides as she went.

She put up a hot heat barrier around her, forcing any air resistance down to an absolute minimum while riding the updraft into the clouds over Vale.

GHOST was already pinpointing the address on her scroll's map. It was on the coast. Easy to find and hard to miss.

Or it would've been if Arex's mind wasn't hazy and all over the place with worries and uncertainties.

 _Everything_ was unknown for her. The feed was cut off, everything was dark, _all_ of Ray's sensors shut down.

She was flying blind and worried for her sister's life.

GHOST still had Prophet, who Arex last saw in the final frames of Ray's eyes. He was taking them to Ly's apartment.

And she was going to meet them there.

She didn't even care if she was going recklessly fast. She cut all upward wing beats as soon as she was in range, letting herself fall in a diving plummet toward the marble balcony down below.

She didn't cut her momentum until she was a few meters away, sliding down into a gentle glide to land softly onto her sneakers just on its glass railing. A light step took her off it to quickly land on the marble below, eyes scouting out the reflective windows across the side of the building in front of her.

But something glinted in the glimmering sheen of the sun, a small flash.

A piercing gunshot suddenly rang out as Arex's body froze up, back going rigid as she felt the bullet graze through her fluttering strands of hair right next to her ear.

It sliced through just a few stray ebony strands in its wake.

"I… may have forgotten to announce your arrival to Snow," GHOST mentioned apologetically.

It didn't feel very apologetic.

"Seyda! What the hell are you _doing?!"_

Arex stayed frozen on the balcony as someone yelled from inside, the feminine voice somehow piercing the wind up on the balcony edge just as loudly as the gunshot rang out.

Just a little muffled.

She still refused to move… c-considering that was _definitely_ a warning shot.

A young woman pushed through the curtains covering the glass sliding doors leading inside. Her shoulder length blonde hair whipped in the sudden momentary rush of wind as her blue eyes locked with Arex's.

Arex's body only locked up further at that, voice squeaking out in just a small murmur. "L-Ly…? Why is someone shooting at me?"

Ly's gaze softened as she crossed the distance between them hurriedly. "Ignore her, she's just twitchy and wasn't expecting you here. Come in, please."

"Y-Yeah…" Arex slowly said, still hesitant to move. She'd only managed to take a step forward when Ly was close enough to tug her into moving. "Okay."

Eventually, she followed her inside, eyes quickly adjusting to the dimmer light of the open room she lightly stepped into.

The one that shot at her was by the sliding glass window, crouching to her right. Seyda, if Arex's frazzled mind could remember that correctly.

At least the girl's rifle was lowered now… She was the same age as Arex, too.

Reflective copper eyes looked at her apologetically, but Arex really didn't blame her for being jumpy.

Long, silvery-gray hair sifted in the breeze as Arex watched it flow to her upper back for a moment, but the moment passed when the girl stood up.

"Hey uh... sorry about that," she murmured. "It was just a warning shot, did I uh… hit you at all?"

Arex quickly shook her head slightly, a sudden wave of relief sweeping through the girl's features in front of her. "Not that I know of. Just a few strands of hair, I think."

Delicate fingers reached up to touch a few shortened strands of raven hair, their tips still warm, but nothing else was hit.

A sigh escaped from the girl as Seyda smiled slightly. "Oh good, I didn't want to scare you off too soon."

 _Too soon?_

Ly cleared her throat, drawing Seyda's attention as the girl's long, spotted tail curled out from behind her.

Something Arex's eyes couldn't help but curiously snap to.

"Sey, go to the balcony and watch the street, you have a better eye than the rest of us." Ly placed her hand on Arex's shoulder gently. "I suspect you want to see the damage… follow me."

Damage… yes. But... Arex just wanted to see her sister.

She quietly followed behind Ly as she led her further into the room, Arex's eyes tracking across nothing else but the floor as she kept her gaze low.

Nothing around her was enough to draw her attention away from the single path in front of her. The one that led to Anoel.

That was all she wanted right now.

Ly led her through the hallway, soon stopping by the first door on the right and opening it. She paused before she entered through, freezing for a moment before turning back to Arex.

"You… _might_ want to wait here for a moment, it's…" she sighed, the blue in her eyes intensifying for a split second, "it's a mess…"

"Is Ano in there?" Arex asked instead of answering, feeling like her eyes wouldn't ever leave Ly's face in fear of missing something. Ray took the heavier hit, from what the feed was showing. But Arex wanted to see her sister first… if she could.

"She's in my room, at the end of the hall. I just need to make sure Ray's okay. I won't be long," Ly replied courteously. "And if it's of any relief to you, she's alive and stable."

Arex's entire frame visibly relaxed at that, the wings she hadn't even realized she tucked away and wound back around her torso relieving their constricted tension on her chest.

It… suddenly felt like she could breathe again.

"It is," Arex replied softly, turning her gaze to the door down the hall with a quiet murmur. "I'm glad she's okay…"

Her eyes silently drifted back to Ly in the doorway as she took a shaky breath.

"R-Ray… Is he alright?"

Ly's eyes closed as she shook her head and turned back to look through the small gap in the door. "Inuba's doing what she can to remove the Dust in his chest… but I don't know if he'll be okay… I don't want to keep you from seeing her, but wait here for a moment, so I can check on Ray before coming with you."

Arex nodded tinily in understanding, drifting her eyes back down to lift the projector she was tightly holding onto.

GHOST hasn't said a word since she got here…

She was probably already seeing what was happening in the room.

"If you're worried, you can come in too," Ly invited quietly, "but it's down to you."

Arex's gaze drifted to Anoel's door again for a couple seconds longer, her hand dropping to quietly put the projector away and slide her scroll into her pocket along with it.

"Y-Yeah… I'll come in," Arex returned, bringing her gaze back to Ly's.

She'd see Anoel after. As soon as she was ready.

* * *

I've been chasing a damn ghost.

Every intersection, every corner, every backstreet alley, every damn crevice of every mountain I chase this thing into, it vanishes.

Typical.

It was a surge of energy. A _unique_ source of energy. And I'd be damned if I let it get away.

Then again, it was being thoroughly certain that I not only followed it… but got just close enough to glimpse it before it vanished in a burst of golden light.

Then that light ran off to some other far-off territory.

And I followed.

First, it was Vale, then Mistral, and now Atlas. And yet, it _still_ managed to thread itself through the air and evade me.

 _Wonderful_. Remind me to bring a lightning rod the next time I go on a wild goose chase.

And _now_ , it was so kind to lead me back to _Beacon_.

The streak of light surged down the hall, grazing around corners and through electrical circuits as I followed close behind, only to come to an immediate halt just outside my door.

My _team's_ door.

A faint, trickle of energy flickered just inside.

The little spark of annoyance knew where I lived.

As soon as the door was unlocked, I pushed my way inside, the energy vanishing as soon as I cracked the door.

It left no path this time.

Way to send a message.

I let the door slowly close behind me as I turned my attention forward, catching the three-tail-ends of our kitsune staring out the open window.

Her ears were flat on her head, tails barely swaying, and she felt more… _silent_ , than usual.

Something happened.

"You and Arex don't usually separate," I muttered, finally deciding to move as I made my way over to the bed assigned to me.

It was still pressed against Ano's.

 _"She's checking on Anoel. She's hurt."_

I know… She was the one who told me to keep out of it.

But I swear to every indiscriminately inhumane, clandestine, arrogant, psychopathically insane or sociopathically abusive prick out there that I'll kill, maim, brand, and _dismember_ anything that takes _her_ away.

She didn't deserve to die.

 _I_ did.

 _"What are you doing back here? Don't you have… something to do?"_ Kit asked, turning away from the window to address me.

Eyes on your own damn problems, kitsune.

I just tracked a raging energy source to _you_. Now what does that have to say about its target of interest?

"I do have something to do," I stated evenly, turning from my bed to tilt my hat toward the door, then brought my gaze away from it to slowly scan the room. "I'm doing it."

 _"Doing… what?"_

Trying to figure out this damn thing's objective.

"Waiting."

Her ears perked just _slightly_ on her head as she tilted her curious gaze, fingers starting to play with the hem of her soft sweater.

Stop being so cute.

Stop it.

"I'll be here for a little while. So just ignore me."

 _"Okay."_

* * *

"Brace yourself then, it's not pretty…"

She knew… she saw it happen.

Ly pushed the door open wider before stepping inside and standing by Inuba, the kitsune sitting with one hand on Ray's bloodied chest, the other hovering just above the gaping hole right below it.

The hole Arex still vividly remembered him dragging a spear out of.

I-It was… bigger than she realized.

"Status, Inuba?" Ly asked, staring down at her cousin with a veil of worry in her eyes.

Arex was afraid to step too far into the room… as if her presence would cause something bad.

But she managed just a few steps, nudging the door mostly closed behind her as she watched Ly step up to the bed.

It was… drenched in blood. His aura still wasn't stopping it.

"I've managed to halt his wound from producing more blood until I've removed the shards of Dust lodged in his body. As for the shards themselves…" Inuba's voice began to trail off as her ears drooped.

She looked concerned.

"They're proving difficult to remove given their nature of Aura Nullification. That, and whatever weapon caused this damage splintered upon impact, making the shards spread deep within his body."

The weapon was… _designed_ to break apart once inside?

"Thankfully, the shard removal process has almost been completed. Once that is finished, I'll seal up the wound itself and his aura should flow normally again. He'll be just fine."

Ly nodded to her before turning back to Ray. "Once you have the shards, give them to Argent, he'll know what to do with them."

A heavy sigh escaped Lylac's lips as she shifted her stance, pulling out a card of lien. But her eyes stayed on Ray's motionless body.

"This is for your help too."

"That's quite a hefty amount…"

"You're saving his life, this isn't nearly enough…" Ly replied softly before she placed the card on the bedside table, turning to Arex and giving her a short glance.

It took a second to realize that glance was directed at her, numbly nodding her head to react to it. Arex's eyes were still on the bed.

Ly walked over to her and placed a hand on her left shoulder. "We'll leave them to it, there's nothing we can do here."

Arex just numbly nodded again, silently meeting Ly's gaze with a blank one of her own before she felt herself get ushered out the door.

Ly closed the door behind her as she continued to shuffle Arex out.

"You alright?" she asked, looking at Arex with a concerned gaze as she stepped in front of her.

Arex hesitantly broke that eye contact as soon as it formed, dry throat trying to swallow as she nodded. "Y-Yeah, I just… haven't seen that much blood in a while."

"It's never a pleasant sight… I know… but he's pulled through stuff like this before," Ly replied, placing a hand on Arex's cheek, gently rubbing it with her thumb. "C'mon, let's go see your sister. I've patched her up, but she still needs cleaning."

She was right… it was _never_ a pleasant sight. It hurt even worse knowing that blood belonged to someone you knew…

Or cared about.

But it wasn't the smell or the blood itself that bothered her. It was just the… sheer amount of it… that really stuck.

It was just so much _red_. Red she hated seeing. Because the last time she saw that much, she lost the only two people who were closest to her.

"Okay." Arex's voice came out shaky, its breath lost before she could even find it as she slowly brought her gaze back to Ly's own.

She almost felt like she was in a daze.

Ly removed her hand from Arex's cheek and grasped the phoenix's hand instead, something Arex barely felt, as she pulled her down the hall until they stopped at a black door.

The older girl's empty hand nudged the door and pushed it open to allow Arex to enter, her hand slipping out of the phoenix's to let her walk freely.

Anoel was laid on the bed, wings outstretched and stripped of her bloodied clothing, leaving her in nothing but her underwear as an IV line dripped blood and a clear fluid into her left forearm.

She was breathing slowly, but steadily, a holographic image on the right wall displaying her steady heart rate along with other medical information.

By the bed stood the blue form of GHOST, smiling softly at Arex for a moment before returning her gaze to Anoel's sleeping form.

GHOST wasn't green anymore.

"I didn't know she needed blood…" Arex spoke softly, bringing her eyes down to see the small needle mark on Ly's arm. Those eyes slowly drifted back up as she gave the woman a small smile, a thankful one. But a concerned one. "I can give her as much as she needs… if she still needs it."

Ly returned her smile with one of her own. "There's no need, I have six other bags kept in the refrigerator. Goes without saying that she doesn't need nearly as much as Ray will though."

Arex softly nodded to that. She knew her blood was fully compatible with Anoel… but she didn't know if it was for Ray's. "I'm here if anyone needs it… I'm not going anywhere for awhile."

Arex's eyes drifted back to Anoel on the bed, her emotions feeling too numb to really display themselves.

Not like she wanted them to right now.

She didn't know if she wanted to be angry at Ano for getting into trouble… or cry at her for getting herself so hurt again.

She didn't even feel like breaking down, crying and yelling at Ano for making her feel this way again.

She never seemed to notice how much it hurt Arex… seeing her like this.

"I'm a universal donor, so I won't be sticking any needles in you anytime soon, sweetheart," Ly replied softly, taking a couple steps toward the bed to sit down at the foot.

The woman turned her gaze to GHOST for a moment. "Anything goes wrong in the other room, I want to be the first to know about it."

The AI nodded before her avatar faded away, Ly's gaze returning to Arex. "Feel free to sit down with her, I'm sure she'd appreciate it."

Arex would too…

The phoenix slowly made her way forward, her steps dead silent in the quiet ambiance of the room as she drifted her way around the bed and sat down at its edge.

Her eyes stayed on Ano's face, watching and feeling her shallow breathing quietly caress the air in her unconscious state.

"When you're ready, I'll go and grab some wet cloths so we can get that blood off her," Ly said tenderly. "I'm still making her have a bath when she wakes up though."

"Yeah…" Arex responded half-heartedly, eyes distractedly falling down to Ano's hand as she took a gentle hold of it between both of her own. "She'd appreciate that."

Ly nodded, her eyes staring at Ano's face. "I know she would."

It wasn't long before Arex felt Ly get up, the bed shifting ever so slightly before the woman walked off. She came back with the wet cloths a few moments later, a bowl of warm water carried carefully in her other hand as she made her way to Arex's side of the bed.

"We should start with the nasty cuts on her hips first, then just rub away any more that you see. The blood's dried now, so it should just come straight off," Ly instructed, shifting herself to sit closer to Anoel on the bed.

Arex had already done this too many times before, but she slowly nodded, taking one of the cloths set beside the bowl to dip it into the water.

Then she just silently let her hands get to work, numb mind being mindful of every tiny little thing she touched and did.

She hated it. She hated it so much that she could enter a mindless autopilot with things like this.

It wasn't right.

This _wasn't_ something _anyone_ should be forced to get used to.

But even in this mindless state… she was still afraid of hurting Anoel anymore than she already was.

So she took it slow.

It only took fifteen minutes to get all the blood off, but it felt so much longer than that when it was all done.

Ly rinsed her cloth again, leaving it in the bowl before she slowly stood up and placed the bowl down on the table beside the bed. "I'm going to grab a towel, I don't think she'd enjoy sleeping in bloody water any more than I would so I'll be just a second."

Arex left her own cloth to soak next to Ly's as she watched her approach the private bathroom door and reach for the handle. But as she touched it, a gunshot rang out through the apartment and she froze.

Arex felt too dull to really react to it, just drifting her gaze toward the direction it came from through the walls.

A small, irritable growl left Ly's throat as she retracted her arm and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"I'm going to put that girl in a _cage_ in a minute," she grumbled as she approached the bedroom door. "What the hell is she shooting at _now?_ "

Arex just hoped it wasn't the woman in the feed.

"I'll go see what's going on, you can stay here. Towels are on the rack in the bathroom, right as you open the door," Ly said, turning to Arex as she spoke. "I know you're not feeling 100% right now… but if you need anything, food, drink, just let me know. I'll be back in a minute."

Arex slowly pushed herself to her feet with a small nod, eyes still on the door before letting her gaze rest on Ly. "I can get her dried off in the meantime. And thank you… but I don't need anything right now."

"That's okay, sweetheart, I won't be long."

Ly then left, pulling the door closed as she did before muffled conversation filtered into the room.

Arex quietly listened for who else was here as she opened the door to the bathroom, finding the towel rack just inside. She dropped two onto the foot of the bed, sitting back down with just one in her hand as she silently started wiping away the tainted water still covering Ano's skin.

She was still on autopilot, even now. She'd long since memorized Anoel's body, even which parts of it bled most when sliced open.

So… seeing this many cuts on her flawless skin… it really scared her how Ano made it back without bleeding out in the rain.

It must've been close.

It had to have been.

"I see you met Seyda."

Ly's voice was quieted through the door as she spoke to whoever had just arrived, but Arex managed to catch it as she lightly ran the towel over Ano's arm.

An arm she always liked to cling to whenever she was scared or nervous.

But now she was afraid of seeing it break.

"Oh yeah, we had a nice cup of tea before she shot me in the head."

That was Dante's voice.

It didn't even register in Arex's mind until several seconds later that she could've been shot just like that earlier.

Straight through the head.

But the fact that she didn't care, even knowing that, really started to bother her.

"She's nervous and has a trigger finger, so I wouldn't worry about her doing anything else."

"Yeah, but if it was someone else, they'd be dead. So, here's me formally lodging a complaint about your trigger-happy co-worker or whatever."

"Save it for Ray, they work for him, not me. But that brings us to the important subject here."

There was a pause after Ly replied, and Arex was almost tempted to stop listening. But they were being so loud, it was impossible not to hear them through the walls.

"Did you _do it_?"

Arex heard Ly put emphasis on those last two words as she said them. Her tone of voice dropped an octave too.

Do what…?

Kill _her_?

"Like a bolt from the blue, the Midnight Huntsmen showed up and saved her ass before I could hit her with that technique I cooked up. He just… vanished along with her."

 _The Midnight Huntsmen…?_ Arex paused with her white towel for a moment as she furrowed her brow. She hadn't heard that name before.

A long-winded sigh left Ly's mouth before she responded.

" _That_ … complicates things… You think they're working together?"

Arex's grip slowly grew loose on her towel as she transitioned to Ano's hip.

Where most of the real damage encircled her waist and torso.

"Not sure yet. Quinn seemed more surprised than anything, considering he showed up and retreated with her in tow. They might not have been working together previously, but who's to say they won't be from now on?"

"I am… she's not one to make friends. And if that _thing_ showed up to rescue her, it could mean that he watched what was going on. There anything you can tell me about him?"

"I ran into him a few nights ago. He's as tough as Niro described, undoubtedly."

 _Niro…?_ Arex paused again and just listened this time.

It may have been ill for the mood, but she was tempted to laugh at the fact that Niro actually held a conversation with Dante.

Someone he hated.

But considering the fact that Niro told him how dangerous this figure was… as in _Niro_ took _Dante_ seriously for just long enough to _warn_ him…

That… _couldn't_ be a good thing. There's no scenario where that would _ever_ bode well.

"I know he wasn't showing me his whole hand, but if he gets involved, we're gonna have a big problem on our hands considering I don't know how to take him down. Yet."

Ly sighed again, audibly inhaling before she spoke.

"Then I'll leave it to you to deal with him. As for Quinn, leave her to Sentinel. All of them have a personal vendetta against that bitch that they're more than happy to execute, Ray more so than any of them."

Yeah… Arex wouldn't mind jumping aboard that train either.

If she could actually hold her own in a fight, anyway.

"Hold on a minute, I'm not gonna just leave you to that Devil woman. I'm sorry, but I don't think you'd all manage too well. I mean, I can see Shades being a bit of a problem for her, but that's about it."

"And I'm not telling you to either. If you see her, you're more than welcome to drop her like a sack of shit, but it's very personal to them too, so don't hunt their glory. That's all."

"I get it, but if they make the same boneheaded move Ray and Anoel did they're going to get killed. Making it personal is what got the two of them in that fine mess. Understandable, but still boneheaded."

Ano had been waiting for a chance to go after the person who put Ly through that kind of traumatic childhood. Arex didn't blame her for what she did…

How could she?

But she didn't like how little people she told before doing it. She was always adamant about getting in the way for the sake of others.

That also meant keeping them in the dark while she moved forward on her own.

Even toward lethal danger.

Herself and Ly, most of all.

"Whether you believe it or not, they're not all that stupid. What you may not understand is that Ray was just as damaged as I was by her, which is why he went after her in the first place. Either way, I'm pretty sure it's safe to say that she's not done yet, which is something we all need to be mindful of."

"Trust me, I know that all too well. And can I get some pliers please? KittyKat's bullet is still lodged in my head, and I can't get it out with my fingers."

Ly sighed for the third time, clear exhaustion seeping into her breath. "Go to the kitchen, there's a toolbox in the cupboard under the sink. If you'll excuse me, I need to tend to Anoel and her sister."

Arex hadn't noticed the white towel in her hand had turned pink at some point during her mindless work, but it did.

It was damp, but not soaked through. She didn't know if that was a good thing.

Ano was mostly cleaned up now, at least.

"Which reminds me, I need to talk to Little Bird number 2. And the Tinman. Are they up?"

"You'll have to wait for that, I'm afraid. Arex isn't doing so well right now and Ray's out cold. You may end up waiting until morning. You're welcome to any food or drinks I have, as well as watching the scroll display in the living room if you're bored." Ly paused for a moment, and Arex could hear feet shuffling for a second. "And when you see Seyda, make sure to tell her to put her weapon down and go to sleep, I think she's had enough friendly fire for one night."

"I was gonna go set up countermeasures first anyway, so sure, will do."

"Alright, I'll let you know when either Arex or Ray is available to speak to." The bedroom door handle twitched slightly. "Speak to you in a bit."

Ly entered the room again, closing the door behind her before she took a deep breath and approached the bed, walking around the left-hand side and sitting down with a sigh.

Arex felt the woman's gaze fall on her as soon as she spun herself around and crossed her legs, a small smile making its way on her face as her eyes shifted into a mix of pink and blue.

She didn't have to make it look so fake.

"I see you got her all dried up."

Arex still loosely gripped the towel in her lap, not really caring if the water was seeping into her pants. "It didn't really take that long."

She kept quiet about the new arrival, but she figured Ly could've guessed that she heard everything through the door.

It wasn't like they were speaking quietly.

The older girl eyed Arex for a second before her eyes fell to Anoel and she moved her hand to tuck some of Ano's hair behind her ear.

"You heard that, didn't you?"

Arex just nodded. "It was hard not to."

Ly's eyes adopted a solid blue as they turned to face the younger phoenix.

"Unlike your sister, I won't lie to you, Arex…" she paused as she took a short, shaky breath. "Things aren't looking good right now. For a lot of us."

Her hand moved from Anoel's ear to her cheek, delicately brushing the back of her finger across its pale surface.

"I know you saw the feed, so I want to try to explain things to you as best I can. That woman you saw… she gave me and Ray a lot of hell when we were kids…"

Arex's grip on her towel tightened after so long of it feeling loose and numb, the material subconsciously reminding her that she was still holding it. But she didn't put it down… not yet. It gave her hands something to do.

Ano lied to her to protect her. She knew that.

But she hated it, too…

"It looks like she's still giving you hell," Arex spoke softly, watching the tender display before her with a small smile. "She's been waiting for her chance to go after her, you know."

"I saw it in her eyes when Quinn made herself known… I'm not stupid." Ly stared down at Anoel with a veil of concern. "She's going to jump at the opportunity to do it again too."

"She always does…" Arex muttered, turning her gaze up just far enough to look at Ly's face. "Especially if it's for you."

Ly nodded slowly, meeting Arex's gaze. "I wish she wouldn't though. She's already done enough for me as it is."

Arex just shook her head. "That's not how she sees it." Even Arex knew that.

"Not much can be done to change that either… apparently," Ly replied with a small chuckle. "She's just as stubborn as Ray is."

"Yeah… she won't change," Arex spoke softly, looking back to her sister on the bed. "I doubt she'd tell you why she got this way."

"Honestly, I'm not sure if I want to know… From what I can gather, you two haven't exactly had stellar upbringings either."

That didn't really surprise her.

Ly glanced between Arex and Anoel with the same soft gaze.

"It's nice to finally meet you again though. It's been a while… Once Ano starts talking about you, she never shuts up."

That _did_ surprise her though, Arex's eyes turning back to Ly's own as she gave her a confused, but nervous look. "Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

Ly's smile widened, "It's a good thing."

"O-Oh, okay…" Arex replied suddenly, starting to feel a little embarrassed at the prospect of that.

"She's always talking about how intelligent you are and how good your baking is. I even placed an order once, not long after you opened your bakery, actually."

Small dustings of pink filtered into Arex's cheeks as she heard that, drawing her legs up onto the bed after resting the towel down next to the bowl of water from earlier.

She quietly hid her face behind her knees and turned her gaze away.

"You did…?"

"Yeah, I had to order it through your sister, but we enjoyed the cakes." Ly's smile became warmer as she said that.

Arex's numbed nerves were seemingly coming back to her, now that things were calming down. "S-Sorry, I didn't know. But… I'm glad you two enjoyed it. I wasn't very good back then."

Ly waved her apology off. "Don't be sorry, I wasn't the most sociable of people then."

Neither was she.

"They were good though. Ray's always been picky with his food, so you have that to go by."

"I guess so…" Arex replied, finding it in herself to bring her gaze back to find Ly's again. "I didn't know you knew about my bakery so early on."

"I don't think your sister liked knowing someone that didn't have an abundance of knowledge on you or your interests. It was forced upon me, really," Ly replied, her eyes changing to a lighter pink hue. "Me and Ray were quite vagrant after we were free of Quinn. But I always tried to find the time to visit."

Arex's gaze softened as she smiled behind her legs, the arms she draped around them growing a little tighter as she got comfortable. "It sounds like her to do that… And your visits were all she talked about whenever she was with me at the bakery. She spent most of her free time either there or with me, just waiting for the moment you got back."

Ly nodded, turning back to Anoel. "Yeah… she never liked the fact that we were always moving around. I'm trying to change that though…"

Arex's eyes fell to the bed again. "I can tell."

She had her own apartment now. She at least knew Ly didn't used to have this.

"She hates the feeling of not knowing if someone's okay," Arex muttered distractedly. "She kinda chases after everything she can, whether that's to quell her growing fears or just settle her curiosity. It's… also what makes her so good at her job." Anoel never stopped craving information.

"She has a reputation for being a big, bad, scary info-broker, but I think we both know her for the softy she is," Ly replied, smile growing a little wider.

"Yeah… I've never known her as anything less than a big softy," Arex muttered with a soft smile too.

"She's gonna _hate it_ when she wakes up to find us worrying about her, you know that, right?"

"I know…" Arex sighed. "But I do it anyway. Even if she doesn't like it."

"I'm just going to wind her up about it, give her a little piece of her own medicine. But that's what she gets for being stupid."

"That'll actually make her smile…" Which was good for her. "She hates any kind of conversation that's anything but lighthearted."

"Yep."

A knock at the door brought Ly's and Arex's attention to Seyda poking her head through. "I don't mean to interrupt anything, but Pyro and Knox brought this back."

The girl entered the room fully, tail brushing past the door frame as she lightly held a crimson sword in her hand, gently leaving it leaning against the wall before offering a small wave and leaving.

"That's Ano's…" Arex muttered, soft eyes widening a bit at the sight of the blade. Anoel never drew it unless she wanted to kill someone.

"I know… she'll be pissed if she lost that…" Ly replied distractedly, moving off the bed to walk over and pick the weapon up. "I'll leave this somewhere where it won't hurt anyone."

"Just leave it with the rest of her things. It won't be hurting anyone else right now," Arex said. If Ano's sheath wasn't broken or lost, it was probably brought back with her.

Ly turned to Arex with a nod before walking over to the small pile of things left in the corner of the room, by the wall with the hologram, dropping the sword on top of the items.

She then returned to the bed, pulling her legs up to mimic the position she was in before the interruption.

"I'll leave that for her to put away… I don't really want to get in the way of _that_ business…" The woman muttered as her gaze fell to Ano again.

"It's Ano's business alone… she hates it when anyone else tries to get involved." But Arex wasn't honestly sure if it was actual business or just the burden she wouldn't let anyone else carry.

"Which is why I'll leave her to it when she wakes up."

"Yeah, _when_ she does," Arex replied softly. "Does anyone know when that'll be?"

"Anoel, like my cousin, is too stubborn to leave unfinished business," Ly stated disdainfully. "I'm willing to bet she'll be awake by morning, then try to go and do something before I'm forced to tell her to sit down and rest."

She was always like that. "I should probably sleep somewhere nearby, unless you sleep with her and just cover for me. She'd probably want to find me once she's awake. See if I'm safe."

Ly shook her head. "You can sleep in here tonight, _if_ I end up sleeping, I'll just take the couch. I think if she wakes up to see you in here, it'll give her the gratification she needs."

Arex could only sigh at that. "I hope so…"

Her gaze only grew softer as she turned it back to Ly's.

"I… left my partner back at Beacon. I don't know how Ano would feel with her there alone right now."

"I'm going to take a shot in the dark and assume Niro has that covered. He can be useful when he wants to be."

"I'm still worried… He's not always there, and he's not always reliable." Arex held her lips tightly together for a few seconds as she brought out her scroll, staring blankly at it before slowly sliding it open. "If he's there, I hope he sticks around for the night."

"If he knows what's good for him, he will be, considering I just patched the closest thing he has to a friend up," Ly replied with a little smile. "I have faith that he'll be reasonable about this."

"I hope you're right…" Arex murmured, starting to type a short message to Kit to fill her in.

 _'Here. They're safe and healing. Still asleep. Is Niro there with you?'_

Arex set her scroll down after hitting send, bringing her eyes back to Anoel's softly breathing form on the bed.

"I think she'd be the only person he'd put himself forward for."

Ly hummed. "Well, since I did him a favor and fixed her for him, I hope he can hear me when I ask that he stays with your partner to return that favor."

Arex's scroll pinged after Ly finished talking, the phoenix bringing her gaze down to read what Kit sent.

 _'Stay safe. I'll be here. And Niro's with me. He says to tell Ly that he's not going anywhere.'_

A small breath of relief left Arex's lips as she closed her scroll, leaving it to rest on the bed. "He's there. And he says he's not going anywhere."

"Thanks, kid," Ly replied shortly. "I guess that solves that problem. You should get some sleep though, you look exhausted."

"I'd say the same to you… since you did a lot of the work," Arex replied, turning her tired eyes back to Ly's. "But I can't call you kid."

"I was talking to Niro, sweetheart."

Arex immediately recoiled a little with a fluster, feeling embarrassed for messing that up.

"But no, chances are that I'll end up staying awake until I know when Ray's stable."

"Okay… I'll probably do the same for Ano. At least, as long as I can, anyway," Arex stated, letting her legs finally relax against the bed as she folded them beneath herself.

"Do what you have to, Arex," Ly replied with a nod, getting to her feet and walking toward the door. "You know where I am if you need me."

"I will… a-and _thank you_ , Ly," Arex replied, turning an earnest gaze back to watch Ly open the door. "For what you're still doing for her."

Ly responded with a smile before she calmly left the room, closing the door behind her after dimming the lights.

* * *

 **Was tempted to name this chapter "Red", but I think I'll save that ambiguous title.**

 **Arex is one of my favorite characters to write, so this showcased her nicely.**

 **Other than that, I wanted to keep this AN short.**

 **For now, _Favorite_ and _Follow_.**

 **I look forward to seeing _REVIEWS_ for this. You'll be introduced to a LOT of concepts of mine. Feel free to give me your thoughts.**

 **Cya XP**


	44. Uncertainty

Rogue Huntsman

Uncertainty

«»

The first things Ano felt when she woke up were an overwhelming sense of soreness and a soft weight laying over her left wing.

It took a few extra moments to realize she wasn't lying in a bloody puddle in the rain anymore… or that her back wasn't sprawled out over the jutting metal and stone rubble of the collapsed building.

She was… on a soft bed.

In a warm room.

Her dull senses were sharp enough to realize the sun wasn't out, the darkness of her closed eyelids making that known as she came to.

Tired eyes slowly drew open as a quiet, strained breath entered her slightly parted lips. Her head was propped up by a fluffy set of pillows, her wings starting to slide ever so slightly against the silk sheets as they tried to wake up too.

Those eyes eventually drew into slivers of glistening color as she realized where she was, resting back again in the familiar bed she was placed in.

She was in Ly's apartment… somehow…

Did… Ray take her back here?

Something glowed faintly in her peripherals, her eyes opening fully again as she glanced down and lifted her head.

A small, holographic girl was lying on her exposed stomach. Her head was propped up by the hands supporting her chin as she kicked her raised feet around behind her, curious face draped in a digital hoodie.

Anoel's gaze immediately tilted as she felt her head quirk instinctively, staring at the small figure with confusion and intrigue.

The projection's head tilted with her.

Ano would've stared longer, but the tiny girl soon shifted her support to just one of her arms as she raised her other over to her side.

Pointing to something next to Anoel on the bed.

The phoenix's gaze followed the direction to the silently sleeping form of her sister curled up over her wing, hands loosely placed against the bed in front of her pale face.

Moonlight from outside seemed to illuminate the room in the same moment, dark clouds passing overhead.

Arex was… here?

How?

The sight was almost too surreal for her. Anoel quietly pressed her hands into the bed just enough to slide her frame down a few inches and move closer.

She brought herself level with her sister, despite all the irritating pinpricks and lashes aggravating her skin.

She just wanted to lie next to her as she slept.

The faint blue light in the corner of her eye faded into nothing as Ano heard the sound of the bedroom door click shut.

If this was any other time… she'd sense to see if she recognized their heat signature.

But she was a little too out of aura to do even that.

A weight eventually settled at the foot of the bed, Anoel's gaze staying on Arex's sleeping face as that movement came to a quiet standstill.

She could probably guess who it was.

"She flew all the way from Beacon to get here in less than 30 seconds… just to make sure you were still alive."

It was Ly's voice who spoke out softly against the silence, Anoel's gaze growing lax just as quickly as it grew uncertain as the phoenix lifted her hand from the bed.

With a reserved tenderness, she gently brushed Arex's bangs out of her face and tucked them behind her ear, illuminating more pale skin in the moonlight of the window.

"Sounds like her…" Ano replied quietly.

"It could have been avoided though…" Ly whispered under her breath.

It could've. Ano knew that. But the uncertainty in her eyes grew as her gaze softened, feeling an aching pain start to settle in.

She was expecting this to go differently…

"Are you mad?" Anoel asked with a subtle quiver, suddenly feeling the weight of everything she'd done start to weigh down on her.

She was expecting Ly to yell at her. Curse at her. _Hate_ her. She was expecting _something_ to happen for what she did… and almost did.

But she couldn't bring herself to just let it go. She couldn't just let Quinn go...

"After picking you up and putting you back together, praying that Ray's heart didn't stop for the third time, and bringing myself to fake a smile to calm your sister's nerves… I didn't have the time to be angry."

Anoel grimaced at every little thing Ly listed off.

Her voice was so collected, calm in the peaceful silence of the room, but there was emotion there that wasn't addressed.

Emotion Ly was consciously leaving out.

"So no, I'm not mad… I'm _worried_."

That part hurt even more, bringing out more and more of that uncertainty in Anoel's eyes as she felt confusion start to sink in.

Why wasn't she mad at her…? She'd done everything she told her she wouldn't do, and nearly got herself killed doing it. Nearly got _Ray_ killed while doing it.

T-This was the p-part where everything she did _wrong_ would come full circle.

Anoel slowly dropped her hand from where it softly stroked Arex's cheek and turned a dull gaze to Ly sitting on the bed.

But all she could see was the back of her shoulder, and the side of her face in the moonlight.

She was looking away from her.

"How's Ray?" Anoel found herself asking, despite everything else she _wanted_ to say. He was there with her, and he fought for her.

But she had nothing to show for it but a bruised and battered body.

"He took a spear through the chest to save your life, despite having no reason to do so," Ly responded quietly. "He's _alive_ , but barely functioning. Won't stop him from waking up tomorrow though…"

Ano's eyes narrowed as her chest stung at those words, feeling her heart turn to lead and threaten to pull her down with how far it dropped.

It was all the more reason to be angry with her…

That was _her_ fault.

Her gaze drifted to the side as she drew in a shaky breath, feeling her brittle self start to close in. Her voice wasn't even above a whisper anymore.

"I'm sor-"

"I forgive you, Ano…" Ly interrupted as her eyes finally turned to her. "I'd already forgiven you when you came here covered in your own blood… and _I don't care_ how much you hate hearing those words. I. Forgive. You."

The girl stood from the bed and walked closer to Ano, kneeling by the side of the bed as she continued. Ano's pained eyes only grew increasingly more distant the closer that comforting warmth grew.

"I don't care if you broke your promise. I don't even care if doing so nearly got both of you killed. But what I _do_ care about… is the fact that you're still here. _Alive_."

Anoel tried to keep her gaze away, struggling to find the smallest of ways to let it dully stay staring at the pillow on the bed, but it closed away instead.

She just felt cold and broken, hearing those words in Ly's soft, forgiving voice. Hearing that quiet, caring tone despite what she did.

Her entire body shook slightly on the bed as she opened her eyes, dark blue irises shrouded in a gleam of water as Ano finally brought her gaze to find Ly's in the shimmering light of the moon.

"W-Why won't you just hate me…? Why a-are you even forgiving me?" Anoel's voice broke as the first of her tears were shed, cascading down her face in a silvery glisten against the window's light.

Ly's hand made its way to Ano's cheek as she slowly climbed up to sit beside her. "Because it would be too easy to hate you... You made a mistake, and _yeah_ … it was a big _fucking_ mistake… but that won't ever change my opinion of you…"

Ly dipped her forehead down to rest it against Ano's, the phoenix's crying eyes trying to fight the aching pain shooting through her heart every time Ly spoke.

"And no matter how much you _beg_ or _cry_ … I'm not going to punish you for it or push you away."

Anoel's watery eyes softened in their lost stare, lips quivering the more she looked into Ly's firm gaze.

That part broke Ano... The growing uncertainty overwhelmed her, tear-filled eyes finally squeezing shut as she dropped her head away from Ly's and let it fall against her shoulder.

Her own shoulders started to shake as her breathing turned ragged, numb fingers taking a tight hold of Ly's shirt as she broke down.

This wasn't fair.

H-How was _any_ of this fair?

She was supposed to _hate_ her. She was supposed to be _angry_. She w-wasn't… she wasn't supposed to _forgive_ her.

S-She...

Ly's arms moved to cradle Ano as she cried against her, fingers soon running through the phoenix's hair as Ly embraced her broken form.

"You jump through flaming rings just to help other people, but you won't ever let anyone do the same for you…" she whispered gently into Ano's ear.

Anoel's grip grew tighter as she buried her face further into Ly's neck, just falling more and more apart at the words Ly was uttering.

"You need to learn that you're not the only one who gets to care… because the only parts of you I hate most are the same things I love best, Ano."

Ly slowly climbed onto the bed as she cradled Ano's head against her, sliding onto the covers to lie down next to her.

Anoel's loose arms immediately pulled herself against Ly, aching legs drawing in as she clung to the warm body holding her.

They stayed like that for an hour, Ly just holding Ano against her as the phoenix's walls finally came crumbling down.

* * *

Who knew keeping myself busy from Anoel could be this… _straining_.

Sure, I could find jobs to eat up my time. I did that for my first weekend at Beacon. Ozpin knew I wouldn't stick around _willingly_ for two days without any kind of obligation holding me there.

But now I had to fill my time even more… considering she wants to do this on her own.

Did I feel left out?

No.

This was her personal business with settling a vendetta she's had brewing since she was 13. She'd wanted to slit that woman's throat ever since.

And now she has the chance.

But she wants to do it alone.

Without me.

Fair enough.

If I can't kill her target, I'll just have to find something else to kill. If I was even allowed to do _that_ , anyway.

' _Why were you at the docks?'_

Kit didn't sleep last night, so it was surprising to see her lift her head and ears from the pillow she'd been clutching at the sound of the ping.

My scroll's ping.

Anoel was getting curious… or angry.

' _Had a job.'_ I sent back, silencing the scroll to keep it from annoying the kitsune on her bed.

' _No you didn't. You wanted to be there.'_

I _did_ have a job, but it was an unpaid one. And one I didn't want to tell her about.

' _I got curious.'_ I replied, cold eyes watching the cursor flash a few times before I heard shuffling come from across the room.

Kit was getting up.

Shouldn't you be napping in your tails… or something…?

' _You don't get curious.'_

' _Of course I do.'_ Learning _anything_ wasn't possible without some hint of that. _'Didn't I have Arex teach me a thing or two about cooking?'_

' _That's because she hated the fact you were training her for free.'_

That… would _not_ be what I'd call 'training'. Training involved work, pain, and some level of progression. She had two of those.

But actual, _real_ progression wasn't one of them. No, just getting better with a sword didn't quantify a gain of experience if you didn't know why you were holding the damn thing in the first place.

She was getting better in one category because that's what society wanted of her.

She was getting better at using a _tool_ effectively because she was supposed to.

Arex was only distracting herself from the one thing she _wanted_ to train, but couldn't approach.

' _Point is, Niro, you were at the docks last night. I want to know why.'_

Like hell I was. Sure, I was _standing_ on a shipping container watching the fight unfold, but did I really need a reason?

Reasons meant the presence of a purpose. Or even a desire.

I lacked both of those.

It's why I didn't have a drive.

' _You're lying to yourself right now, aren't you…?'_

No. I was monologuing the logistics of humanity in a nutshell, and my lack thereof.

' _Why are you dodging it?'_ Anoel persisted, four messages stacking together on my screen as I read the words over again.

She wanted to know why I was there? Fine. _'I was there to break a promise. Just like you.'_

Ano knew how much I loathed making promises in the first place. Let alone making ones impossible to even keep.

Breaking them was even worse, but nothing beat making a promise and _knowing_ you were going to break it.

But some things couldn't be avoided.

' _Whose?'_

For once in your damned life, Anoel, stop second-guessing every little thing you do and think.

Nobody was a saint.

Nobody was asking you to try to be one.

' _Yours.'_

It was _yours_ , Ano. Yours was the promise I wanted to break.

Her messages went silent for a long few minutes, long enough for me to finally realize the odd lapse in pressure on the bed I sat on.

My eyes turned down to look past my scroll, finding Kitsuki curled up at the foot of it.

When the hell did _she_ get there?

' _I asked you to keep out of it.'_

Anoel's message finally flashed onto the screen, forcing me to drag my gaze back to the black scroll glowing abrasively in my hands.

' _You asked me to let you die.'_ That wasn't part of the deal. That was _never_ part of the deal. Did she think I actually wanted that?

' _Would you have stepped in… if I was?'_

Would I have…? I flexed my glove for a second as I tipped my head back, burning the white color of the ceiling into my mind.

Come to think of it, I wasn't thinking when I followed her to the docks. I didn't need to.

That was where I _needed_ to be. I didn't know I needed a _reason_ to be there.

That reason was what she was trying to claw out of me.

How could she though... if I didn't know it myself?

I could send her almost anything for my answer. Like she would've been fine, or there were others already on the way to help, or Quinn wouldn't have killed her, or the fact that she was holding her own just fine during the fight itself.

' _Yes.'_

But I wasn't going to lie to her.

She _wasn't_ going to be fine. Quinn _would_ have killed her.

And she _wasn't_ holding her own well at all. She was pretending to. She ran in there and left _everything_ behind with Arex and Lylac.

She wasn't fighting to win.

She was fighting to lose.

And she almost _did_.

' _What am I to you, Niro?'_

What was she to me?

Was it unfair to just say 'everything'? To say she was the only one that seemed to care I existed?

To admit she was the only reason why I didn't go nuclear when my father was shot?

' _That's not a question I know an answer to.'_ I typed back.

There was another pause before she responded.

' _When you find your answer, I'll be waiting to hear it. In person, if you're willing.'_

Don't say things like that.

You never know how long you'll be waiting for.

But I guess that's a lesson she chooses never to learn.

* * *

It wasn't long before morning had come and gone. She wanted to spend it with Arex and Ly after messaging Niro, and she did.

For what she could of it, anyway.

But this?

This was… unnecessary.

Ano usually _never_ felt humiliated. _Ever_.

And she still didn't feel it here either.

But she had to admit, it had to be pretty humiliating for _him_ to think his words were actually doing something.

" _Un_. _Be_. _Lievable_."

Dante had the nerve to be berating them.

"This has by far been the most boneheaded, irresponsible thing I've ever witnessed in my life. Excluding my counts of occasional stupidity within recent years."

Anoel's arms just crossed as she leaned against the couch's back frame, choosing to stand on her battered legs instead of sitting down while he ranted.

She didn't want to feel like he was talking down to her. Which it definitely felt like anyway.

Ray didn't look all too bothered. He was sat at the breakfast bar.

Calmly eating cereal.

"You, I expected this from if you knew what was going on, to which I still would have said 'utterly stupid move'," Dante continued, pointing to Ray. "But you? Come on. You're supposed to be the smarter one here."

His gaze fell on Ano, but all she did was roll her eyes at it.

"I think you have that backwards," she muttered back, glancing to Ray by his cereal bowl. " _He's_ the smart one. _I'm_ the emotional one, thank you very much."

Then again, they both let their emotions run rampant at the docks.

"No, I don't have it backwards. I have it pretty much right considering I'd expect something this stupid from Ray, not you."

"And what makes you think you know me?" Anoel cut back harshly, snapping her gaze back to him. "At what point did you ever decide that you can take one look at me and read me like an open book?"

"Let me tell you something Littler Bird, I've worked with your type dozens of times before in all sorts of situations. I know how your type thinks and operates. And, I know for a fact when they do stupid things like this, they're the first to die unless a miracle swoops in from the outer confines of the universe. Which thankfully in your case, it did this time."

He wanted to categorize her, was that it? "You _still_ think you know me… It just comes down to classifications for you, doesn't it? Little folders you store your precious little associates in to classify all their predictable decision making. Not _everyone_ falls into your little _sorter_ so perfectly."

He let out a faint laugh briefly. "You think so huh? You're more naive than I thought. True, it's not entirely perfect. But if you could actually know what I was thinking, you'd know I don't believe in perfection. And you'd certainly know my predictions of outcomes are very much spot on."

"If they were so spot on then why weren't you _there_?" Ano asked with a huff, biting through the pain as she tightened her crossed arms over her chest. She didn't want to deal with this right now. "And I don't _need_ to know what you're thinking to know what you're planning. It's _engraved_ in every tiny little action you do."

"Neither of you should have been there," Ray finally spoke from his seat at the breakfast bar.

His spoon dropped into his bowl as his gaze bore into the splashing milk.

"Quinn isn't either of your problems, so your desires to get even with her are completely void of any logical reasoning."

"That wasn't me trying to get even with her," Ano growled, her irritation dangling by a very thinly drawn thread as she switched her gaze to Ray. "That was me taking four mental years of pain and trying to drive it like a stake back into her desolate heart."

"Still doesn't make it your problem, Anoel…" Ray muttered in reply, still focused on his bowl of cereal. "Hell… She isn't even Ly's problem anymore, either."

"It doesn't matter who's problem she is now," Dante said, looking between the two of them. "The fact is that she _is_ a problem that needs to be dealt with using an actual, thought out plan. Not some half-cocked scheme a twelve-year-old makes on the spur of the moment."

"Funny. That's what happened the first time I got rid of her," Ray replied evenly.

"If you call that 'getting rid of her', you really are stupid. Whatever hocked up shit plan you made back then clearly didn't work, because she was still standing there and nearly ghosted the two of you with minimal effort."

Ray slammed his spoon down against the surface of the bar before pushing himself to his feet. A harsh crash striking the ground as his stool toppled over, Ray moving to stand eye-to-eye with Dante.

" _Really?_ You think I didn't fucking notice that?" he spat, violet eyes faintly glowing. "I didn't exactly have the best tools and equipment as an enslaved twelve-year-old back then, Dante. So why don't you shut your fucking mouth and cut me some slack. Or is that too hard for you and your holier-than-thou demeanor?"

This was getting _annoyingly_ out of hand.

"Sit down before you hurt yourself, Tinman. And listen to what others have to say for once. Or is that too hard for you?"

"Before I hurt myself? What the fuck are you going to do exactly? _Stab me?_ " Ray angrily gestured to the patch on his bare chest, the one covering the hole through his body.

"Me? Oho, I'm just gonna stand here, watching you pathetically flail your arms at me to no effect, and also watch you break your own wrists of your own accord. So think very carefully before you try to take a swing at me."

"I didn't wake up to be antagonized by an arrogant piece of _shit_. So don't come _here_ and start."

"And I didn't walk into a blatantly obvious trap and nearly get myself killed. Nor did I agree to help kill someone without thinking very carefully how to do so. So, sit down and shut it."

" _Think?"_ Ray snapped, fury burning in his harsh, amethyst eyes. "We didn't exactly have time to think, you fucking moron! You think she'd give us that luxury?! How brain dead do you think she is?! If we didn't go, it was _her_ life on the line!"

His finger pointed to Lylac standing outside on the balcony, peacefully enjoying her company with Arex.

"And I'm not saying you shouldn't have gone! Now for the last time, sit down and listen!"

Ray turned around aggressively, walking straight toward the balcony. "Nothing you have to say is going to rectify this situation. _Nothing._ Neither of you has a fucking clue who you're dealing with and I _refuse_ to wait around for her to get away again."

Ano was getting fed up with this. _Actually_ , she'd reached that point _far_ before now. But this was getting them nowhere.

"You're right. _Nobody_ has a clue what we're dealing with," Ano muttered dryly, Ray's steps drilling to a stop as his hand fell to the balcony's door. "Not even you…"

"I know that she's after _me.._. Not _Ly._ Not _you,_ " Ray turned to look over his shoulder, glaring at Dante behind glowing eyes. "And _you_ don't even have the right to be here."

"And _that's_ the _problem_ ," Anoel said, leaning away from the couch to face him. "Do you have _any_ idea what it would do to _Ly_ if you died? Or fell back into Quinn's hands?"

"Yeah…" Ray darkly chortled as he muttered the affirmation under his breath. "I know exactly what it would do. But it's better me than her."

"It's better _nobody_ sacrificed themselves than _somebody_. But none of us should give her any more reason to _kill_ anybody than we already have," Ano replied.

"That I agree with," Dante cut back in. "But honestly, answer this for me, no sarcasm or anything involved here, how difficult would it have been to send word for backup? One word, three letters. SOS. And I would have gotten to you very, very, very quickly."

"You haven't figured it out by now…?" Anoel's voice fell in volume and tone as she dropped her arms to her sides. " _This_. _Isn't_. _Your_. _Fight_."

"You asked for my help. And with what little you managed to whisk away from my head, you of all people should have known people and things like that devil woman are my area of expertise," Dante retaliated. "You asked for my help, and I would have unquestionably given it at any moment's time."

"Yes, I _asked_ for your help. But what kind of solace would that bring if you came in and dealt with her just like all the other little side projects of yours you like to take up? All for the sake of the people she hurt? There's no point in taking that away from them. _Sure_ , you can _help_ , but you never get it through your head what exactly you should be _helping_ with instead of what you think you need to do to take something over."

Ano moved past Ray now, turning just half a gaze back to Dante.

"And I'm shocked. Honestly, _I am_. I thought you above anyone else would know that sometimes _you_ have to become a monster to deal with things that are far worse than yourself. That 'devil' woman you want to deal with so badly? She's no different."

"This isn't about me trying to take over your deal. This is about two things, Anoel. The first, you have a resource, free of charge basically, that has worked in this area countless times before. Use it. And the second, this is about preventing a catastrophe. I get this is personal, for both of you. But it's no excuse to throw yourselves aimlessly at the dark and expect to come out alive."

"That wasn't aimless," Ano muttered under her breath. "And I wasn't expecting to."

The seal of the glass door cracked as she slid it open, the coastal breeze slipping through the curtains before threading through her hair.

"The reason wasn't aimless, I respect that much. But the method… Did you think for a second even what that might've done to your friend? Your sister? Nosferatu even? What if Shades and I never showed up at all?"

Ano's gaze turned dull as she dropped her head to the side, letting the corner of her eyes peer down at the floor beside Dante and Ray behind her. "I did… for far longer than a second."

She caught a glimpse through the curtains of her sister and Ly on the balcony, leaning against the railing by the pool.

They were out of hearing range.

"I'm thankful the two of you actually showed up. Don't get me wrong there. But I can't stand by and let you solve the personal problem that's been a plague to Ly and Ray's wellbeing."

"I'm not asking you to hand this over to do it personally or anything like that. I'm asking you take me with you next time so I can make sure you come home afterward. Alive mind you and very much intact."

"Then try to understand the gravity of the situation before you lecture us for doing our job…" Ray quietly muttered to himself, staring at his clenched fists. "You claim a lot for someone who has nothing to show for it, Dante."

"I understand perfectly. I just don't want a repeat of this event anytime soon with worse results."

"You don't though, all you've been told is that we want her dead, but you don't know exactly _why_ we want it that way," Ray replied evenly. "She's not your typical, run-of-the-mill villain."

Ano brought her gaze away again as she let it level softly on the conversation Ly and Arex were sharing just outside. "She's a person."

"Your case isn't the first I've seen. Nor the last unfortunately. But that's exactly why I'm frustrated with what happened to you guys, and specifically with you two. So please, let me actually help next time rather than just being willy-nilly about it."

"If this case, these _exact_ circumstances, are something you're familiar with, then you'd do better to show some goddamn consideration before lecturing me over the one thing I know how to do," Ray replied, turning to face Dante directly. "They may have asked for your help, but I didn't. And as far as I'm concerned, I don't want it anyway. I don't know you, and you don't know me. So how am I expected to trust you with less than three interactions?"

He paused, taking a moment to walk over to the breakfast bar.

"You keep speaking like this was a complete and total failure, but it wasn't. And I'll tell you why, right now."

He picked up his empty bowl and spoon before carrying them over to the sink and placing them inside, quickly washing them as he lifted his gaze to Anoel and Dante.

"The Quinn you saw last night isn't the same Quinn I knew. She's behaving carefully. And that's a _big_ fucking change for her. The Dust she used on me was a prime example of that."

"She wasn't just behaving carefully," Anoel replied softly. "She was desperate."

Desperate to find someone.

Someone who was taken from her.

"Desperate how?" Dante asked.

"Like if she doesn't act now…" Anoel muttered back, "she'll lose something forever."

"And she needs me to find it. Which begs the question…" Ray added.

"What is she after exactly...?" Dante said, raising a hand to his chin. "How desperate was she?"

"She was fighting dirty, not methodically like she usually would. And where she would be playful and taunting, everything she said was spoken with an air of purpose," Ray listed evenly. "The fact that she's desperate for my help means she doesn't have a lot of time to find what she's looking for. It's making me question if we have to kill her…"

"We don't," Anoel answered for him, voice dead in the fading wind.

"Shit…" Dante said, as if he had a realization. "I think I understand what she's after. And you may be right, we might not exactly have to kill her."

"Now you know that you don't understand it perfectly, fortunately for us, you're not a complete idiot," Ray said back.

"I was talking about your motives before. I didn't necessarily think about hers given she was slapping you about like a wet fish."

Ano didn't think _either_ of them knew what was really going on.

It wasn't as easy as understanding the simple fact that she's after something.

It only went as far as coming to terms with _why_ she was after it so desperately.

And Anoel was still trying to come to terms with understanding why _she_ suddenly didn't want to kill her anymore…

Like she'd always wanted to ever since she met Ly.

Like she'd always thought that woman deserved.

"Either way… She wouldn't fight that hard unless it was something very important. More important than any physical object or-"

"It's a person," Anoel cut him off, drifting her gaze away from the two on the balcony to her feet. "She's after a loved one."

"I was gonna say that, but thank you for pulling the rug out from under my feet," Dante said, briefly raising up his arms.

She could feel Ray's interest silently pique at her words, even without looking at him.

"So she spent a year and a half torturing _us_ because she was after someone she cared about?" Ray asked incredulously.

"I'm not saying what she did was _right_ ," Ano clarified, her grip on the door starting to loosen. "I'm saying she had a reason behind it all. I still can't forgive what she's done, but we have a way to turn her away from the two of you for good."

Ray's voice grew quiet. "I think I can speak for the both of us when I say we just want her gone."

"That's good and all, but I don't think simply saying 'we know' is gonna get her off their backs. If she believes Ray is her best bet at finding this important person, she'll keep persisting unless she has a different resource available. And unless you have one…"

"Then I'll find whoever she's looking for…" Ray responded. "And let bygones be bygones."

"I need to start digging around," Ano tacked on firmly, turning a glance back to Ray to let him know she wasn't letting this go. "I'll find whatever relations she's had and what her past was like. Not everything can be erased."

He nodded in response. "Once you find them, _if_ you find them, I'll do the rest."

Ray turned to Dante. "In the meantime, you promise to keep us alive?"

"Do you really need to ask me that? Of course. I'll keep her and anyone else off your backs."

"Good. Then it's settled. We find this missing person, then bring them to her. And hopefully, she'll fuck off for good."

If only it were that easy…

* * *

"How's the whole 'genius inventor' thing working out for you? On top of the baking, of course," Ly asked Arex chirpily.

"It's not really a 'genius' kind of thing, to be honest," Arex replied softly, glancing back toward her sister and the two with her behind them before looking away. "It's more me just messing around. But it's working out, I guess. It's a side project."

"You're making _money_ off of it though, right?" Ly questioned in response. "Wouldn't make sense if you weren't."

"A bit," Arex replied with a small grimace. She didn't like the sound of making money off it. "I get credit and royalties for inventions, and get paid for the occasional contract, but most of my projects are just my own personal interests. They all go up into a public domain at the end of the day."

Ly shrugged a little. "Well, you know what they say; if you're good at something, don't do it for free."

"I guess it's not really for free, still," Arex offered with a small shrug. "I make decent pay from it. But I'm more interested in just seeing how far I can get with the work I do."

"That's fair enough, so long as you're making enough to fund it and pocket a little on the side after paying bills, there's really no real reason to take it to the extremes," Ly commented, smiling at the younger girl.

Arex found her gaze trailing away from that smile after she saw it, feeling too bashful to really address it. "I am. What I make from it either goes toward future project materials or the bakery. There really isn't too much that goes into pocket."

She wasn't a professional. It was more of an amateurish passion for her.

"I bet that stupid _bribe_ that my idiot cousin gave you isn't helping much either," Ly remarked, giving the boy a narrowed glare for a moment before turning her gaze back to the horizon.

"Y-Yeah…" Arex actually felt a little ashamed of being forced into a position to accept that case of lien, leaning more heavily into her arms on the railing. "I don't really know what to do with that, to be honest. I've never had to deal with that much before."

"You want my advice?" Ly asked, turning to face the phoenix with an earnest glance.

Arex gave a tiny nod as she glanced back at the woman, the tip of her sneaker tapping against the marble ground.

"There are two useful ways of getting rid of that floating cash; you can store it away, maybe a personal bank or vault. Something like that," Ly spoke honestly, with a sincere tone and expression. "Or you invest in something you think is worthwhile. Putting money, time, and dedication into it so you can watch it grow."

Arex's smile turned a little sheepish as she sought out Ly's gaze for a moment, an unsureness lingering in her own. "I'm probably going to invest it into something. I don't like the feeling of having that much stored away anywhere I live… and I wouldn't really use it for much, either. My projects really aren't ambitious enough to need a large funding."

"The kid you got it from built an artificial intelligence matrix at age 12. I don't really blame you for not wanting that much physical cash on you," Ly replied, gently placing her hand on Arex's head and rubbing her hair a little. "That much money puts a target on your back anyway."

The phoenix didn't like hearing that last part, despite dipping her head a little and blushing faintly from the touch to her hair. "That's… kind of the reason why I use an alias, just to keep my personal information away from the public."

She couldn't help but sigh as she gave a little, tiny smile, but it held much more concern than it did amusement.

"People probably think I'm rich or something, with how many projects enter circulation." The sour truth of it was that Arex wasn't a deal maker. She only made enough to break even and fund projects.

"There are two types of people in this world, sweetheart. You have your thinkers, and you have your doers," Ly replied, smiling down at the younger girl. "I look at you and I can safely say you're both. You deserve the money you earn because you think hard and work harder to achieve your personal goals."

Arex looked away at that, her unsure gaze coming back again. "My personal goals aren't really as ambitious as your cousin's, though. And I don't really know how to get them to be."

Ly gave Arex a sympathetic gaze as she placed her hand on her shoulder and squeezed it lightly. "They don't have to be. He lives and breathes this stuff, it's all he's known for years. But what he does affects a larger scale of industries and markets than what you do. So don't worry about it."

Arex gave a tiny smile in return for the gesture, but her unsureness only got worse. "Is it bad that I kind of want it though? To actually start aiming a little higher than I am now?"

"Not at all. Expansion in your shared line of work is natural. If you want to aim higher and raise the stakes, then go for it. No one's stopping you but yourself," Ly's voice was gentle and considerate of Arex's uncertainty as she lightly shook her head, the woman's hand squeezing her shoulder a little more.

The reassurance helped, but it also didn't help that Arex's anxiety always held no qualms happily holding her back from the things she finds intimidating.

And that… was unequivocally intimidating.

There was no way around that.

"I want to…" Arex spoke with an exasperated sigh. "But I'm _really_ good at holding myself back. I've never really had much guidance, so nobody's helped me move forward but myself. And things like this always feel impossible for me."

"Ray didn't have it either. _Sure_ , he had a little boost from his father, but the rest he did by himself," Ly spoke assuredly as her smile brightened a little. "I get that you may not have his iron will and his intolerance for failure, but honestly, I think he takes this stuff way too seriously sometimes."

"Yeah, he does…" Arex returned, casting a small amused smile to the side. "I've worked with him a little, and that was more than enough to see his work effort. It's just… I'm not like that. And I don't think I can ever become like that."

She hadn't received a boost from anyone. She was afraid of failure. She didn't have a strong will. Sometimes her determination wasn't even enough to get over her own fears.

She was lacking in _all_ of those.

"You're two very different people, but you share a passion for the same thing. What you lack in confidence and determination, he lacks in patience and a collected temperament," Ly explained carefully. "I've seen him work, he gets irritated quickly and breaks more than he creates sometimes. I imagine you're not like that."

"W-Well, no… not really," Arex muttered back, quietly lowering her gaze. She guessed that was something she had going for her.

"My point exactly."

Ly tilted her head as she spoke, a little smirk crossing over her lips.

"You're capable of progression just as much as he is."

She honestly didn't really see herself like that. Not the way Ly was seeing her, it seemed. But Arex found herself giving a thankful smile anyway.

She wasn't confident enough to say that Ly may have been right, but it was good to know somebody believed in her.

Even just a little bit.

"I can try, I guess. But I hardly know where to even start," the phoenix responded. "Or how to do it."

"I can't give you that answer, I'm afraid. That's something only you can figure out." Ly's hand rubbed the top of Arex's head before she turned to face Anoel.

Arex dipped her chin again under the action. That wasn't going to be an easy thing to figure out.

"You going to idle there all day, or are you going to engage in a conversation?"

Anoel had been leaning against the railing nearby, her arms laxly placed on the guard to help her weight stay standing. She felt sore, but not enough to weigh her down entirely.

"I was just waiting to see if you could talk some confidence into Arex. She always struggles with that," Ano said, turning her gaze from the sea below to Ly's own.

"She's a smart girl, she can do it if she tries," Ly responded evenly, sparing a soft glance to the younger phoenix.

Anoel watched Arex shy away from the words again before Ly's gaze turned back to her.

"As for you, I think you'd like a bath, no?"

Ano's body visibly went a little weak at that thought, head tilting just slightly to entertain the relaxing idea.

Her wounds weren't deep. They were just plentiful enough in number to litter her body and suck her aura dry.

She'd be fine enough to soak in a tub of water for a little while.

"That sounds nice," she answered earnestly, drawing her gaze to her sister as she gave the girl a soft smile. "Arex, honey, I don't want you staying in the dorm for a while. If Kit's there, can you two pack some bags and come back here?"

Ano's eyes drifted back to Ly's, silently apologizing for dropping this on her.

"Would you mind looking after them for a while? Maybe a week? I need to help Ray with something once I'm on my feet. We think we have a doable plan."

Ly nodded. "You already knew the answer to that before you asked me."

Of course she did… Anoel couldn't help but see the small trace of excitement in Ly's tired gaze, finding the prospect of her finally spending some time with Arex adorable.

"You've always wanted to meet her," Anoel replied teasingly, shooting an amused glance to Arex's confused face. "I figured you'd like to spend a little time with her now that you have. And you get to meet her cute little partner too."

"I only wish it was under better circumstances, but there's not much anyone can do about that now. Besides, it sounds like fun. Now take your clothes off, you need to be cleaned," Ly replied in an uncharacteristically excited tone of voice, flashing Anoel a toothy grin.

Ano's own gaze narrowed in challenge at that as a hot blush began to form, a little startled to hear that kind of statement leaving Lylac's lips.

Usually she was the one to say those things…

"Well, nothing like overbearing danger to finally get you two together. And I don't know if you noticed, but I can't exactly bend my body around right now to get out of my clothes," Anoel responded evenly, turning herself around to lean her back against the high railing behind her. " _You_ put me in them this morning. Not me."

A small smile tugged at Ano's lips as she saw her sister's growing discomfort with the way the conversation was turning.

Arex's face was already cutely red, and she knew that _Anoel_ knew about it. So she was quick to do as she was asked and slipped her wings out of her sweater, quietly taking off from the balcony to head back to their dorm.

"Getting old already, Ano?" Ly asked cheekily, raising a brow. "Or is this you asking for assistance again? I don't mind taking your clothes on and off."

Anoel opened her mouth to respond, but her blush only got worse as she snapped it shut, turning her head away. "I-I just need a _little_ help."

Someone else's footsteps made their way across the marble balcony as they spoke. "I'm going out, got business to attend."

Ly's head snapped to Ray standing on the ledge of the balcony, her eyes widening as he let his center of gravity tilt toward the ground below them.

"Ray don-" she made an attempt to stop his descent, but could only watch as his frame fell from 40 stories, hearing a loud crash and the wailing of a car alarm a few seconds after.

"Whelp… he was useful while he lasted," Ano quipped, peering over the edge after him. "He's probably fine."

Ly let out an exasperated sigh as she pinched the bridge of her nose. "He'll be fine… but if Quinn and gravity fail to kill him, I'll do it myself…"

Ano hummed softly as she crossed one ankle behind the other, getting comfortable on the railing again. "And here I was hoping you'd slay me first."

Ly let her body relax with a deep breath as she crossed the small distance between them and lifted Ano up in a bridal carry. "Not before I get you clean."

Ano's body was way too sore to protest as it was, but it wasn't like she _wanted_ to say no to Ly picking her up.

It was actually kind of exhilarating. Giving her body's control up like this.

It brought another soft blush to her cheeks.

"As long as you don't mind getting wet, I'm not opposed to that," Ano voiced cheekily again, a happy flutter in her tone.

"Only one between us that'll _really_ be getting wet is you. I said that I wasn't going to punish you for acting reckless, but that _doesn't_ mean I don't expect you to make up for it," Ly replied evenly, carrying Ano inside and walking through the living room.

Anoel went quiet as they headed toward the hallway, Ly's words reminding her of last night's events when she woke up.

She… had a lot she wanted to make up for.

When they reached the master bedroom, Ly came to a gentle stop, turning her gaze back down to see Ano's distracted one.

"And you can _start_ by having a bath. I can feel the tension in your muscles through your clothing."

It took a moment, but Anoel returned the comment with a slight smile. "As long as you're okay with giving me one. And… I do want to make it up to you. All of it."

Ano's voice grew softer as she looked away again.

She owed her so much more than that, but it was a place to start, at least.

Ly's gaze softened as she brought Anoel's eyes back to stare into her own. "You know that I'll jump at the opportunity to help you, even if I have been running on no sleep. As for you making it up to me, I'll take your word for it."

The thief spared a moment to plant a light kiss on Ano's warm cheek before pushing the door open and entering her bedroom.

Anoel's response got caught in her throat from the rising heat in her face, the info-broker uncharacteristically dropping her gaze away after the chaste little kiss.

It was rare for Ly to do that.

Lylac set Ano down on the bed once they crossed the room, moving to open the door to the private bathroom after letting Anoel's balance come back to her.

"After the bath, you should get some sleep," Anoel finally voiced out, gaze watching Ly make her way into the bathroom. "I'll start thinking of ways to make it up to you while you do."

A small sigh escaped Ly as she returned to the bedroom after letting the faucets run. "I'm not going to do that until your sister and her partner are here, need to make sure they get settled before I can allow myself some rest."

Ano sighed at the response and placed a hand against the bed, letting it support her weight as she leaned forward and gave Ly a soft but firm gaze. "You can let me handle that. I don't want you pushing yourself and eventually crashing."

"By the time they get here, either Ray will be back, or one of the other two will wake up. _You_ can barely stand, let alone help those girls settle down. I'll be fine."

Anoel's gaze grew softer as her breath left her, biting her lip. Ly was right. "Promise me you'll sleep as soon as they're settled."

"Only if you promise not to push yourself once I do," Ly countered, sharing the same gentle look.

Ano's gaze dropped, but she needed to make up for breaking her last promise.

She didn't want to do that again. She didn't want to _ever_ do that again.

"I promise," Anoel voiced softly, bringing her gaze back to Ly's eyes. "And that's a promise I won't break."

"Good."

Ly wasn't hesitant to kiss Anoel again, only this time, it was on the lips.

She was tired, and didn't possess the willpower to restrain herself like she usually would.

The soft contact immediately drew a quiet squeak out of Ano's lips the second before she kissed back, locking up slightly on the bed under the action.

Her blush from before came back stronger this time, and she couldn't help but breathe a little more shakily at the sudden lurch of her heart in her chest.

These kisses were starting to catch Ano off guard, even if she saw them coming.

They just felt… different. Somehow.

And she sucked at hiding it.

* * *

 **Okay, I have an important question to ask.**

 **Because this current arc is centered around Anoel and Arex (due to Quinn's involvement), Niro's honestly taking a very harsh backseat for most of it.**

 **I'll be getting to him, and he'll be getting involved again once the thingy happens that I have planned down the line, but he'll be pretty uninvolved leading up to it.**

 **Soooo… I was thinking of throwing him into a few Omakes at the ends of these upcoming chapters (something Shepherd239 suggested). Things that can humorously juxtapose his character.**

 **It's honestly just a way to keep him involved without destroying the delicate plot currently in-place.**

 **Let me know if that's actually worth it to see. Otherwise, Niro** _ **will**_ **be a no-show for a little while.**

 **His role here isn't as important as it will be down the line. I might be able to fit small segments of him in, but this arc really does focus on Ano and Arex. He takes back over after them.**

 **For now,** _ **Favorite**_ **and** _ **Follow**_ **.**

 **I look forward to seeing** _ **REVIEWS**_ **for this. You'll be introduced to a LOT of concepts of mine. Feel free to give me your thoughts.**

 **Cya XP**


	45. Anxiety

Rogue Huntsman

Anxiety

«»

Arex managed to make it back to their dorm's window in a much less record-breaking time than when she flew out to Lylac's apartment.

It just… didn't feel so pressing to make that return trip. So she didn't mind taking her time.

When she got back, it wasn't hard convincing Kit to put together a bag for about a week.

It didn't take long to get her own bag together either. She just packed away everything she needed. When they were done getting everything Arex thought would be a good idea to pack up, she picked up her own bag and glanced to Kit, frowning for a moment.

She hadn't even told Kit exactly what was happening or why it was happening, but Kit just went along with it.

So she felt a little bad dragging the girl into this. Especially now that she looked at the bag pulling Kit's arms down as she stood patiently and looked to Arex for directions.

"I can't fly us there… the bags would be too heavy. So I think we're just going to have to settle for public transportation," Arex said, offering an apologetic smile.

Kit's ears suddenly folded for a moment as she nodded, starting to sway her bag a little.

R-Right… Kit probably wasn't a fan of public transport. Not with that kind of proximity to strangers.

Arex didn't like it herself, but she knew Kit probably had it a lot harder due to having something to hide.

But a harsh bleeping emitted from Arex's sweatpants to get the girl's attention, stopping them before they could head out.

"Actually, transport has already been arranged for you both."

That was GHOST's voice…

"It has?" Arex asked, pulling out the projector in her pocket to stare down at it in question.

"You'll see. Assuming you leave via the courtyard and _not_ the window," GHOST replied, flashing Arex a small smile as she spoke. "It might be a little more than what you're used to, but it'll get you both to Ly's."

Arex… wasn't sure what to think about that. A little more than she was used to?

"W-We'll leave for the courtyard," she replied, feeling weirdly ashamed that she wasn't capable of leaving through the window anymore. "But… what exactly did you mean?"

"Trust me when I say this, your transport has been arranged. Once you've packed your bags, you'll know it once you see it."

GHOST had a little prideful gaze in her avatar's holographic projection, only worrying Arex a little as she placed her hand on her hip.

"I don't know how I feel about that look…" Arex muttered concernedly, sighing as she slipped the projector back into her pocket and took a stronger hold of her duffle.

Kit was already at the door, nudging it open with her boot.

The phoenix quietly followed Kit out and made it out of the building, taking some of the back pathways to keep out of the general vicinity of other students as they walked.

She honestly didn't want people asking questions about why they were leaving campus with their items packed away in bags.

But as they slowly approached the courtyard from one of the side paths, Arex noticed a small twitch to Kit's ears. A curious gleam nestled into Kit's marigold eyes as they drew closer and Arex couldn't help but pale a little at seeing that.

She was getting a little anxious now.

By the time they finally reached the courtyard, some stray students there were already staring at something by the open gates.

Yeah… now she was _really_ getting anxious.

"GHOST, please tell me that's not what it looks like…" Arex muttered quietly, almost nervously, as she tracked her gaze across the courtyard to a quietly purring sports car.

"It's exactly what it looks like," GHOST responded, tone blatant enough Arex could hear the grin on the AI's face. "Your transportation."

The phoenix inwardly groaned as she let out a pent-up sigh, which didn't help relieve any of her tension. She was starting to look as worried and anxious as she felt, mumbling something to herself. "P-People are g-going to think it's _mine_ …"

Kit stepped in front of her to catch her drifting gaze, trying to sooth the phoenix a little with a reassuring smile and a nudge in the car's direction.

But it _really_ didn't help.

No matter how they went about it, people were going to see them climb into that car.

And Arex was going to be the one forced into the driver's seat.

Because she knew it'd look so much worse if Kit got behind the wheel instead.

"Please tell me there isn't anyone I know nearby," Arex muttered to herself now, resigning to her anxiety just a little as she grazed a cautious gaze around to the few students gathering around the courtyard.

Her face only paled even more when she saw Ruby and her team hanging around one of the benches.

 _Great…_

"I-Is public t-transport still not an option?" Arex squeaked again, but found herself stumbling forward into a reserved walk when Kit got in front of her and started tugging her wrists along with her tails.

"The next transport leaves in 45 minutes, and judging by your sister's tone of voice, it sounded like she wanted you both at Ly's urgently," GHOST explained indifferently. "This vehicle will get you there much quicker."

Arex caught an affirmative nod from Kit ahead of her and inwardly complained about the kitsune answering for her, the grip on her bags growing tighter.

Ruby was watching. Her team was watching. _Everybody nearby_ was watching as two girls with duffle bags slowly approached a fully tinted windowed _Fenyr Supersport_ sitting in _idle_.

It was _worse_ than a sports car. It was _sportier_ than a _sports car_.

All of it was painted and plated in dark gray steel, sharp contours and angles curving through the design in that elegant, attention-magnetizing way.

Hard angles clung to the exterior of the car like a snug, form-fitting, aerodynamic glove, showcasing just how much depth the car actually had in all the shadowed grooves and layers just the _frame_ had to show on the outside.

It was almost arrow-like, the headlights and rear lights drawn in sharp-angled slits to almost bask in knowing that it looked _good_.

That, and Arex honestly thought it gave the car a feminine touch. A very fast… and aggressive… streamlined… feminine touch.

The windows and tires were obsidian black, which looked nice altogether, but the tire rims were painted a shiny crimson to accent the car's beauty even more.

 _Perfect..._

A-And now Ruby was staring with wide eyes as that universal attention shifted to _them_ …

Arex dropped her gaze to the ground as she watched the courtyard stones trail beneath her walking sneakers, Kit's tails still ushering her forward to step up to the side of the car.

She could swear she could hear just how _loud_ GHOST's smirk was when the door in front of them opened on its own and slid the driver seat forward.

Opening space to get their bags into the back seats.

G-Great! Everything was great!

Couldn't be better!

Arex was dying.

Everybody was watching her die.

Kit's tails didn't let go from their grasp around her slim wrists, knowing that if she did, there was just the _slightest_ chance Arex would up and bolt.

And she would, too. She _wanted_ to.

But something told her the quivering legs just barely holding her steady right now wouldn't work well enough to make that happen.

In fact, she kinda felt a little lightheaded with how flustered she was.

Her hazy mind only grew hazier as the heat of attention rose and her anxiety spiked, Kit turning back to regard her with a look of worry before gently taking Arex's bag out of her tight grasp. The kitsune moved that into the back seats as well, then leaned back out of the car.

The driver's seat moved back into position, and the shotgun door popped open now as well.

And Arex honestly thought she'd fall over if Kit let go of her supportive hold keeping her steady. Giving her a direction.

Arex's anxious mind was honestly too blank to figure that out on her own.

She had _just_ enough of herself still held together to climb into the car once ushered, nervously situating herself into the driver's seat to rest her legs down beneath the wheel.

Her mind had half a thought to realize how spacious it was for her, but she was a generally small person to begin with.

So that kind of came with the territory.

Her arms closed in tightly to her body as the door closed, and she was left in the silence of the car, alone, for a few short seconds while she watched Kit make her way around front and to her own door.

The muttering was still going on outside as the kitsune climbed into the passenger seat, tails making room as she sat back.

Everything felt surreal as Kit's door began to close, the seal blocking out the murmurs flooding the courtyard with a sudden, almost relieving drop of ambient silence.

It was just the gentle purr of the car now and Kit's tiny movements. Nothing else.

And Arex finally realized she could actually breathe again.

"Don't worry, Arex. I'll handle the driving. You and Kit can just sit back and relax. You can even fall asleep if you'd like," GHOST's voice came out of the car's speakers this time, the AI's avatar appearing on the dashboard as she walked around a little on its surface. "The windows are fully tinted, so no one's going to be able to see anything inside."

Arex was actually grateful for that. She didn't know if she was in any state to actually drive right now.

She'd piloted drones before. Driven RC's remotely as well. But… she'd never actually been behind the wheel of a _real_ car.

Come to think of it… she was suddenly realizing she actually had no real idea how to drive one.

Arex eventually nodded her head to what GHOST said, feeling numb but working her way back from it. She was still feeling anxious, but not as much as she was outside the vehicle.

"Good. We can head out as soon as you'd like," GHOST continued, a small shifting of panels entering Arex's ears as she looked down to see the pedals retracting away.

It helped with her nerves a little, knowing that she could stretch out her legs without accidentally pressing any of those.

"Any requests? I have full access to all radio stations, personal playlists, and the internet through the Interceptor's built-in satellite. It also has cup holders, seat warmers, automated seatbelts, and War Mode."

"W-War M-Mode?" Arex managed to squeak out softly, her fingers twisting and tugging numbly at the hem of her sweater.

"Yes, but to save you from worrying too much, I will simply state that this car is ready for combat situations. Should the necessity ever arise," GHOST explained.

"O-Oh…" Arex numbly nodded again, the action even tinier than it was before.

GHOST was actually starting to get a little worried about her.

The press of a button disturbed the dwindling silence though, and GHOST turned to find Kit's finger pulling away from the seat warmer symbol on the button panel.

"Ah, you found the seat warmer controls. Every seat has one," GHOST commented, quirking her head as Kit's gaze turned to her.

That gaze suddenly began to widen though, Kit starting to shift slightly in her seat as she wiggled herself against the rising heat of the pad beneath her.

Arex finally drew her gaze over now as Kit's eyes fluttered closed and her lips parted slightly, a relaxed sigh leaving Kit's small nose. All three of her tails stopped all motions as they lowered to press against the seat now too, fox ears drooping dully on her head.

"Kit?" Arex asked quietly.

The kitsune was unresponsive.

"She must really enjoy heat," GHOST said with a coy smile, turning her small gaze back to Arex.

Arex just nodded, her daze seemingly coming to a fading end as she bit her lower lip. "Yeah, she doesn't like to feel cold."

GHOST hummed amusedly as she smiled more. "So I've noticed. Are you ready?"

It took Arex a moment, but she took a deep breath and slowly nodded her head, feeling most of her nerves finally leave her.

GHOST gave a tiny nod of her own as the seatbelts came down and molded over the two girls' shoulders, collapsing down to lock across their lap as well and snap into place.

Twin clicks sounded out once they were in place, and GHOST shifted the gears, ready to go.

Only for one of those clicks to sound back out as Kit undid her seatbelt.

"Kit?" Arex asked worriedly, looking over to see an intensely focused gaze resting on Kitsuki's face.

The girl suddenly pushed herself up, drawing her legs onto her seat before lowering herself entirely and curling up on the heated material beneath her.

Her ears immediately fluttered in bliss at the rising heat inside her magic seat, a long, drawn-out breath shuddering out of her lips as she cutely melted into it.

Arex didn't catch how long she was adoringly staring for, eventually glancing back to GHOST on the dash with an apologetic smile.

"Drive carefully?" she requested softly in a worried tone for her partner, knowing Kit was just a few seconds away from falling asleep in that position.

"I'm an AI, Arex, one that's been told to keep you alive," GHOST responded evenly. "I'll drive as carefully as you need me to."

"Okay, thank you, then," Arex replied, breathing another sigh of relief. Kit didn't have her seatbelt on anymore. That was her main worry.

The car eventually started moving on its own, its wheel turning to take them out of Beacon's gates and head down the road by the cliffside.

She'd honestly never taken it before, but as the car picked up a gradual, seemingly uncapped speed, the sunlight outside faded away as they entered the ambiance of a carved tunnel. Its road ran down the outcrop of Beacon's cliffside, carved through to keep the right wall open to the air outside.

Overlooking the massive mountain lake.

That was what took them to the city.

* * *

Arex stayed awake for the short drive, GHOST surprisingly good at filtering traffic lights without suspicion in a way to change the flow of cars in their favor.

They didn't need to stop at all as they crossed the majority of the city to get to Ly's coastal apartment.

When they pulled up front, the car came to a gradual stop just outside the main lobby doors. Arex's eyes glanced around for a moment as she saw a partially filled parking lot, the scene of the ocean rolling just over its far railing.

"Ly is waiting for you in the lobby to take you upstairs," GHOST informed, walking to the center of the dashboard to look between the two of them. "Take your time. There's no rush."

Arex nodded to that as she smiled her thanks, her seatbelt coming undone and folding back up into the seat over her shoulder as she leaned forward.

She carefully regarded her napping partner in the passenger seat, and almost felt a little bad needing to wake her up to get them inside.

But they couldn't sit out here forever.

Even if Kit wanted to.

Arex carefully reached over and turned off the kitsune's seat warmer, letting the heat begin to die down before moving her hand to Kit's shoulder to give it a little nudge.

"Kit," Arex whispered quietly, moving her touch just slightly higher to gently pinch the tip of Kit's closest fox ear. "We're here."

It was times like this Arex was glad Kit was a light sleeper, watching her white ears flutter as she yawned on her seat.

Her legs curled up just a little bit more before her eyes slowly opened, dreary golden-orange irises drawing into lidded slits to peer silently up to meet Arex's gaze.

The phoenix took her hand away when it did, leaning back into her own side of the car as she watched the kitsune slide her legs from her seat and rest her socked feet next to her removed boots in front of her.

Arex took them off her sometime during the drive, since they looked uncomfortable like that.

Kit seemed to make some sense of where they were, looking out the window for a moment before turning her sleep-ridden gaze down to her boots.

She silently pulled them back on and tied them up, nodding tinily once she was ready to head out.

"We'll meet you upstairs then, GHOST?" Arex questioned, opening her door before climbing out of the low vehicle. She figured the AI had to deal with storing the car somewhere.

The AI nodded before her avatar slowly faded away, leaving the two of them to grab their bags out of the car once they were out of their seats.

The car quietly rolled away after the doors closed themselves, Kit and Arex standing at the lobby's outer doors with their bags in-hand as they stared up at the building's front.

It was… much higher than Arex realized. She'd only seen it from the sky.

Things always looked more impressive from the ground.

But if Kit was in awe or anything, Arex honestly couldn't tell.

The kitsune still had that neutral gaze on her face. Like she always did.

"Let's head inside," Arex finally suggested, being the first to start walking forward as they made their way through the automated doors and into the foyer of the lobby.

"There you are." Ly's pink and blue expectant gaze fell on the two of them as they entered, the young woman pushing herself away from the wall and casually walking toward them. "And here I was thinking you'd get lost without G's navigational assistance."

"She drove us here, actually," Arex corrected softly, coming to a stop in front of the woman as she gazed evenly at her.

It felt off when she first met her, but this only reminded her that the two of them were the same height.

Kit was still three inches shorter, though.

"She escort you in the Interceptor?" Ly asked, cocking her hip to the side as she rested her hand on it. "Figured she'd show off her favorite toy to you."

Arex cocked her head questioningly at that as she gave an apprehensive smile. But it probably came across as bashful, which wouldn't be wrong either. "She did. It was a smooth ride, actually. I liked it. Kit liked it a lot more than I did, though…"

The phoenix let her gaze drift to her partner at her side as the kitsune looked around the elegant expanse of the room. It was built to impress.

"She was asleep before we even left the courtyard."

Ly spared a glance toward the three-tailed girl next to Arex, a little excitement filtering in through her multicolored eyes.

"I didn't know you had a puppy."

The comment brought Arex to quirk a delicate brow as she questioned the way Ly was looking at her partner, but she couldn't help but admit she liked the thought of Kit being her puppy.

A small smile curled across Ly's lips the longer she looked at Kit, who'd only just now glanced back at her. The woman had already crossed the short distance between them once she did.

"Y-Yeah, you can say that," Arex offered, watching Ly's eyes roam up and down Kit's slim frame as the kitsune stared up confusedly at the woman's face. "She can act like one. But I found she resembles more of a cute kitten than a puppy."

"You think she's _cute_ , Arex?" Ly replied, flashing a tiny smirk toward the phoenix with a mischievous glint in her eyes.

Kit's gaze followed the knowing glance and Arex immediately reeled back at what she just got called out for, a faint blush quickly flushing her cheeks as she tried to get out a reply.

"S-So? I think she is…" Arex muttered back.

That… that wasn't much of a reply.

That was an admission.

Ly's smirk widened a little as her eyes fell solely on Arex's, staring with a look that saw straight through everything Arex was putting up for a couple of painful moments before turning back to Kit.

Kit was still staring at Arex after Ly looked away, the phoenix struggling to meet the kitsune's mute gaze.

"I bet you do…" the young woman replied before turning on her heels. "But we'll discuss this later, I'm sure you'd like to dump those heavy-looking bags as soon as possible. So let's go."

Arex lowered her gaze finally and peered through a few stray strands of hair to Kit, who looked like she had no intention of moving yet until Arex met that look with her own.

It wasn't until then that Kit smiled tinily, then looked away, soft tails reaching out again to lightly cling to Arex's wrists and usher her into a walk to follow too.

"I-I never said thank you yet," Arex spoke shyly as they walked, trailing behind Ly as they headed toward the elevators, "for letting us stay here."

"You can thank me once you're settled, sweetie," Ly replied calmly, swiping a golden plastic card against a panel beside a pair of golden elevator doors. "Because then I can finally go to sleep…"

Arex suddenly realized Ly hadn't gotten any sleep yet, the three of them making their way into the elevator body before Ly pressed the top-most button on the panel.

"You can just show us to a room, we'll be fine from there," Arex offered, trying to make this quick so the woman could finally get some rest.

"You'll be in the room Ray stayed in last night," Ly replied, turning her gaze to the girl. "Don't worry, I saw to it that it's clean of any… mess… I replaced the mattress as well. You'll both be comfortable crashing there for the week, so long as you don't mind sharing the bed."

Arex suddenly felt her blush start to seep back into her cheeks as Ly said that, glancing across the way to see a cool-headed Kit nodding along to what Ly was saying.

She seemed entirely okay with how things were going. Not questioning a single thing.

"W-We're… fine… with that," Arex muttered out, catching a glimpse of Ly's forming smile.

"Wonderful. I trust you know where the door is then," Ly spoke evenly, as if she didn't just silently call out Arex in the middle of the ascending elevator. "I'll get you both inside and let you take it from there. I'll give you a proper tour of the apartment when I wake up."

Somehow, Arex had the mind to speak her thanks as the doors opened and Ly led them to her suite's door.

She was honestly a little too distracted with the way Kit was eyeing her.

As if she wasn't flustered enough with Ly poking fun at knowing something Anoel probably told her.

Or, was it really that obvious…?

Her blush seemed to only get worse as Ly unlocked the way into her apartment, leading them inside before closing the door behind her.

"Please, make yourselves at home. Feel free to lounge anywhere and do whatever you please. This is _your_ home now. Don't be afraid to get comfortable," Ly spoke earnestly, making her way past them to start heading toward the hallway. "Nobody will judge you here."

She gave them one more smile before disappearing down the corridor, a door closing quietly shut at the end of the hall as Kit and Arex stood silently in the apartment foyer.

"Right…" Arex said idly, the silence of the apartment settling in as she took a breath. Her gaze turned to Kit, the kitsune patiently waiting beside her as she looked around the open floor plan of the suite. "Wanna set our bags down in our room then look around?"

They might as well explore a little. Ly was going to give them a proper tour when she got up, but until then, they were kind of on their own.

Arex didn't mind that all too much. It was what she was used to.

She just needed to think of ways to keep them occupied until classes the next day.

What were the chances Ruby forgot all about that car in the courtyard by then…?

Kit gave a sure nod to Arex's question, bringing her out of her thoughts as the phoenix smiled and led the way to the room Ray recovered in.

She was expecting there to be some kind of iron smell lingering, but was relieved to enter the room to a refreshing, clean scent instead.

Ly really knew how to clean that up.

Kit followed the phoenix inside. It wasn't a big room, but it had a large pane window and a bathroom on the opposite wall. One large dresser lined the wall to their left, and to the right beside the bathroom stood an open closet.

It was nice, actually. It… kind of felt like the dorm room, but with more natural light.

And a bigger bed.

That was _actually_ one full bed. Not two beds pushed together.

"I'll probably just unpack later tonight," Arex said, dropping her bag down and kicking her shoes off by the foot of the bed as she saw Kit do the same a moment after.

Everything just felt so… calm. It was a drastic shift from yesterday.

She appreciated that things calmed down so soon, but she hated how it made her feel. It gave rise to so much uncertainty to realize she was able to relax after all that.

" _We missed lunch…"_

Kit's momentary sign brought Arex's mind back to the girl she was unknowingly still staring at, the realization quickly turning her gaze away as she nodded in understanding.

"I can make something, then. Ly probably has some ingredients stocked away for use," Arex spoke with a sigh, making her way out of their guest room to venture back into the main heart of the apartment.

Kit followed, eyes tracing over the open, polished kitchen as she slid herself up onto a stool at the breakfast bar. Arex made her way around it and onto the stone-tiled floor, padding over the cold surface to the cabinets and fridge.

She opened them one by one, scanning the contents tucked away before checking the fridge last.

Well… it looked like she was out of eggs.

So Arex had to think of something that didn't include that.

"Did you want something meaty? Or are you fine with anything?" Arex asked, wondering if Kit was craving anything right now.

With a glance back, she saw the kitsune leaning her cheek into her palm in thought as three tails idly swayed in the air behind her.

" _Maybe a little meat."_

She could work with that.

"Anything else? I can always just make a curry, if you'd like," Arex offered.

Kit seemed to mull the thought over for a few seconds before nodding her head swiftly, licking her small lips at the thought of the dish.

The cute display was more than enough to confirm the dish Arex wanted to make for their lunch.

* * *

"I knew I smelled something savory and tasteful," Anoel said, wandering into the room with a relaxed grin on her face. She'd just been lounging in her pajamas, it seemed.

Which was still her usual white t-shirt and black short-shorts.

Arex partially wondered if Ano just had spare changes of clothes here, but didn't really want to question it too much.

"When did you come in? Ly didn't tell me you were here."

"Not too long ago," Arex answered, playing with the last small segment of chicken curry in her bowl as she set her scroll down. "I made some extra for anyone who might have wanted any, if you're hungry."

Ano had already wandered into the kitchen by then, gazing down into the pot and peering into the pressure cooker to see how much rice was inside when she smiled at the scents floating around.

"I am. I haven't eaten anything all day," she replied, moving to pull a bowl from a cabinet and start gathering her own serving.

Arex picked her scroll back up to keep scanning her forum, flicking down to read another string of messages on her blog.

She really needed to think of what she wanted to do next. She had her next project in mind, but the talk with Ly was really starting to get her to question where she actually wanted to take herself.

She… almost wished it was just that easy to pick up an ambitious project and run with it.

It never really crossed her mind to try it through her blog's medium, but it didn't hurt to entertain the idea of what might happen if she did.

They might even be helpful and supportive… if she asked them.

Anoel eventually set her bowl down at the table, sitting across from Kitsuki and just around the corner from Arex's own chair.

Kit was just finishing her food, idly reading something on her own scroll.

"So, did you bring swimwear?" Ano asked, lifting up a steaming spoonful of curry before her mouth as she glanced at Arex.

The girl just looked confused for a few seconds before shaking her head, Kit's attention drawing into the conversation now too. "Were we supposed to?"

"Of course," Ano replied. "Didn't you notice the pool on the balcony?" She almost seemed playfully judgy at Arex not noticing the body of water she landed next to when flying over.

She really hadn't noticed. "No, I was more worried about you. I didn't know we'd be able to use it, either."

Ano narrowed her gaze as she swallowed her steamy bite, something Arex always found herself a little envious of.

Anoel could heat and drink hot substances with ease, but for some reason, Arex had a sensitive case of cat's tongue.

And by that, she reeled at anything overly hot in her mouth. Especially coffee or tea.

She just couldn't drink it while it was that hot.

It was cruelly ironic, too. Because she was fireproof.

"Hey, GHOST?" Anoel asked playfully, eyeing Arex's scroll with a coy grin. "I want you to schedule something for tomorrow. Ly should take Arex and Kit somewhere."

The AI's blue avatar appeared on the mahogany table with her hands loosely hanging by her sides. "Certainly, what'll it be?"

"Would you mind helping Ly take the two of them shopping?" Ano asked with a forming grin, ignoring Arex's gaze snapping back to her. "They're in need of some swimsuits. Bikinis would be nice. Find them something cute."

"I can do that, there are a lot of clothing stores around here, prepping for the summer with new stock. Wouldn't be too hard for them to find some of that description," GHOST happily responded, flashing a small smile.

" _Perfect_ ," Ano replied back, scooping up another steaming bite of curry as she gave Arex a toothy grin.

Arex was still just balking at her in her silent fuming state of embarrassment, face reddening beneath Ano's gaze. S-She'd never worn something like that before.

"I imagine that'd be _extremely_ uncomfortable. Pinning them tight like that."

A new voice piped in from behind Arex as they heard shuffling on the couch. A soft weight settling on the corner bend.

Arex's eyes turned to where Anoel's gaze was peering to meet a pair of reflective copper pools peeking from behind the cushions, flanked by a pair of delicate hands.

Seyda was still here?

"Keeping what pinned?" Arex asked confusedly. She felt like she was asking a lot of questions today.

"Your wings. Wearing a swimsuit would pin them against your body," the girl replied pointedly.

"Hence why she should just get a two-piece," Anoel cut in, watching as Arex's gaze flicked back and forth between the two of them.

Arex's eyes eventually landed on Kit, who seemed more interested in her reactions than the prospect of getting a bikini.

She was never bothered by any of this…

"I-I guess it would," Arex eventually replied, casting her gaze back to Seyda peering over the couch. "I've never really had to wear a swimsuit before, so I wouldn't know."

"A two-piece suit would prevent constriction, though I can see wings as large as yours making swimming difficult, due to the weight and drag," Seyda replied as her thick, bushy tail curled up from behind her.

That seemed to be the only thing that suddenly dragged Kit's attention away from Arex. The girl's eyes always homed in on anything soft and fluffy.

But still, Arex found herself struggling to refute what Seyda said. "Swimming's just never been my thing. I'm fine with sitting around in a private pool or warm spring, just as long as I don't have to worry about moving around too much."

The beach was a whole other story altogether. Aside from most of them being _public_ beaches, places where Arex's anxiety was more than enough to hold her back, she also couldn't imagine what it felt like to have sand stuck in her wings for days after coming back from it.

"There's always the jacuzzi," Seyda suggested in return, tail idly swaying behind her. "Perfect if you just wanna soak in the warm water. Problem is, Ly hasn't turned the heaters on, so it'd take a while for the water to heat up."

Kit was still mesmerized by the girl's tail.

Something Arex noticed.

A jacuzzi sounded really nice, actually. "That's fine. We don't exactly have our swimsuits right now anyway, and we're probably not going to get them until some time tomorrow."

"I've already ordered some," GHOST cut in. "Six pairs for you to choose from, various designs."

"Awe, and here I was thinking Ly could embarrass Arex all day on a shopping trip," Anoel complained humorously, eyeing the holographic projection of GHOST on the table before smiling. "Thank you. But why wait? Not having a swimsuit has never stopped me from having a dip."

Arex just stared in disbelief again as Ano cast her a deliberately teasing glance.

"The water will still be cold though," Seyda pointed out. "Also, G? How long has Argent been asleep?"

"3 hours," The AI responded evenly, receiving a sigh of annoyance in return as the girl pouted against the cushion she rested her head on.

" _Great._ I have to wait for another _4 hours_ before we can do something."

That caught Arex's attention. "Do you two work at night?"

"We're nocturnal. It's actually really late for me right now, but I wanna wait for Ray," Seyda replied with a nod, switching her gaze to the phoenix. "And Argent sleeps like a _brick_ , so he won't wake up until it's exactly 4 hours from now."

That… actually made some sense. But Arex found herself nodding in return to that, setting her spoon down in her mostly finished bowl. "What do you two do, anyway? For Sentinel?"

" _Well_ … I'm responsible for scouting missions and generic recon stuff, but Argent?" The girl turned her gaze to GHOST, silently asking for assistance.

"Argent does… well, everything else, he's the Ray of field missions," GHOST explained hesitantly, seemingly not sure herself.

"Yeah… he's a really unique individual… but I love him anyway," Seyda added, smiling a little.

It really did sound like Sentinel was a tight family of unique individuals. It just… made it feel all the more intimidating to know they had an interest in her joining them.

"From what I saw, he seems more than capable on the field," Arex said, bringing her drifted gaze back to Seyda.

"Argent and Ray have been doing this stuff for years, I don't think I've seen anyone else who works as efficiently as they do, definitely something worth watching," Seyda spoke with a small flutter of happiness in her tone. "They basically wrote the book for field ops."

"I… actually really do want to see them work, it's just…" Arex trailed off again, hating how every time she got close to even thinking about Sentinel's invitation for her, she just cowered back away from it altogether.

She suddenly didn't really feel like finishing the rest of her food, so she slid her bowl away from her. A silent signal for her partner, considering Kit glanced back to it and casually took it for herself.

"Ray's given you an open invitation, you know, but it's your decision at the end of the day. I know that if I'd refused the offer, I wouldn't be nearly as good with a rifle as I am now," Seyda spoke nonchalantly, turning herself around on the couch to stretch her lithe frame.

Arex knew it would be good for her to join, but she hated the thought of possibly holding them back with her own problems.

Her anxiety was one of the major ones. It wasn't something she could easily get over.

"I know he has," Arex replied quietly, leaning over her scroll as she rested her arms on the table in front of her. "I just don't know what to do about it, or how you'd all take it if I actually _did_ join."

"No differently than we did with Sam and Avery I suppose…" Seyda replied simply, turning her body back around to her original position.

The only dots that were left in the city were Pyro and Knox, so Arex knew it was probably just those two. But she didn't know which was which.

"Avery _sucked_ at semblance control, and couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with her hand cannons. It was actually funny when Ray threw her in a training hall and sent a bunch of robots to chase after her with her goal being to destroy them all. Sam didn't agree with that too much though..."

Arex slowly brought her gaze back to Seyda as she spoke, slim fingers grasping distractedly at her scroll as she slowly tipped it around in her hands.

"Was she comfortable using her semblance at all?" Arex asked, hoping to find just a little confidence in its answer.

Seyda giggled at the question, "Oh hell no, the poor girl was too scared to touch anyone and anything in fear of melting right through it."

Arex bit her lip at that, dropping her gaze again as her fidgeting hands grew still. "How did she… get over that?"

"Well… there were two methods Ray proposed, one gentle and one extreme, to help her get over her fears," Seyda explained carefully. "The first was to make her hold an ice cube, between her thumb and index finger, if she melted through it quicker than it would normally, she failed, but she ended up turning each one into steam the second she touched them."

Seyda shuffled toward the phoenix a little before continuing. "Ray's other method was to make her hang from a metal bar suspended in the air, forcing her to take control over her semblance or else she'd fall into freezing water. Definitely a scary thought, but it wasn't without safety precautions. Tell you what though, she very quickly got ahold of herself then."

Arex… didn't like the sound of that. She actually kind of paled a little in response to it. "B-But it worked in the end?"

Seyda nodded fervently, "Oh yeah, we ended up throwing her items to catch without her turning them into molten slag, plus I don't think I've ever seen her smile more when she finally got to hug Sam."

"That… sounds nice…" Arex spoke quietly, finally setting her scroll down to rest her hands on the table. "I've honestly been hesitant to join. You all seem so much more capable than I am. And I don't think I'd be able to get over my own fear as easily as Avery did… I _want_ to, but I don't think I'll be able to."

"I didn't say it was _easy_ for her… Ray spent 3 months helping her break out of her bubble. Hell, he spent a _year_ training me how to use my rifle…" Seyda clarified, shaking her head a little. "He takes our personal progression very seriously. He's a good mentor when he wants to be."

Arex was still afraid to try though. And she was even more afraid to admit that fact. "Do you think... he'd be able to help someone... who's too afraid to let her fire move even an inch into the air in front of her in fear of losing control of it?"

"I'm not going to say it'd be an easy task for him to help with that, but I've known him since we were twelve and can tell you, with 100% certainty, that he wouldn't give up until he's successful."

So… she really would just be holding him back if she couldn't get over her own fear.

Arex's gaze slowly lowered again as Anoel stood from the table, the woman silently looking between her sister and Seyda on the couch before gathering the empty bowls around her.

"Sentinel's entire moral code is built on helping people less fortunate than others improve themselves, mind, body, _and_ spirit. If you think Ray would quit on someone who wants to get better, you'd be very mistaken," Seyda's voice was soft as she gazed at Arex's downturned face. "Nothing is more important to him than the welfare of the people that work for him."

Arex's chin only dipped lower as she dropped her gaze to her lap.

"You know, Arex," Anoel cut in, stacking Kitsuki's bowls beneath her own as she started making her way to the dishwasher in the kitchen. "There's a reason why I haven't been trying so hard to help you get over that fear anymore."

Her younger sister's eyes quietly made their way up to her own as she placed the dishes in, the quiet clasp of the dishwasher door shutting filling the silence that followed.

"You're afraid that you'll hurt someone you care about again. That's something I can't help you with," Anoel stated bluntly, making her way back to the table to stand at the opposite end her sister resided. "You _can't_ hurt me. Even if you tried. You need to be working with someone you _can_ , or you'll never gain any real control over your affinity."

Arex shied away from the words, gaze breaking from Ano's again as she lowered it back to the table.

She'd always found Anoel a nice safety net to fall back into…

Was it really so wrong… to want to train with someone she couldn't accidentally hurt?

* * *

 **Whelp, some of you actually wanted an omake. So, that's down below this AN. It's my first one and I doubt it'll be as good as the ones made in Professor Arc, but I figured it'd be fun for the time being. Besides, I think I need to find my own style for these anyway.**

 **As for this chapter, if you haven't noticed, Arex has a lot of anxiety boiling inside her. Especially in terms of social situations. Enough so that she'll actually lock up and break down if she's in them alone, and will still do so to a slightly lesser extent even if she's with someone else anyway. It's something that's always plagued her from her past.**

 **Kit was the only reason why she actually managed to not only get to the car, but climb inside it too. Considering Kit pulled her along for the ride and controlled her every anxious step, it was a shock to see that Arex even made it to the car without freezing up entirely.**

 **It's a trade-off between the two.**

 **With how much Arex takes care of Kit in all other scenarios, Kit returns the favor when Arex wants to break down.** **It's one of the reasons why their partnership completes each other as characters. Among other reasons.**

 **Anyway, the omake below is non-canon. So, it's really only there for humor purposes only.**

 **For now,** _ **Favorite**_ **and** _ **Follow**_ **.**

 **I look forward to seeing** _ **REVIEWS**_ **for this. You'll be introduced to a LOT of concepts of mine. Feel free to give me your thoughts.**

 **Cya XP**

* * *

 **Omake:** _by Xera Stark_

* * *

Arex rushed through the air as fast as she could, burning the clouds in her wake like a blaze setting fire to fields of herded sheep. She needed to hurry.

She _had_ to go fast.

Kit sent her one word in a text, the only word strong enough to make her fly this fast as she clutched the device tightly between her two hands.

' _help'_

It drove her mad. One simple word echoed in her head, and the spark of one message littered her mind with countless horrible scenarios that could've been happening.

Quinn could've gotten to Beacon first. The man _working_ with Quinn could've taken her there too, or arrived there himself.

 _Hell_ , if they both were there…

Was Arex just flying straight into another trap?

She didn't care. She _couldn't_ care. Kit was probably being mercilessly tortured right now, and Arex was going to be too late to stop it.

The clouds below seemed to part just as Arex sped up, the wall of her dorm's windows down on campus glimmering into view as she dove through the opening in the sky.

A hellfire blaze shrouded her form as she plummeted and almost shattered the glass of the windows around her, plowing to a stop just outside before crashing into the carpet of her room.

Her sweater sizzled and smoked as she rolled to a crouch, eyes glancing down to find Kit's boots still where she always left them.

They took her… they had to have taken her-

A soft, almost silent pat of a tail against a bed dully echoed through her ears in the silence of the room.

Arex quickly shot up onto her feet and whipped around, eyes catching the glint of Kit's scroll laid loosely on a black bed before those eyes caught sight of her partner lying limp on its mattress.

 _N-No…_

Before she could so much as move, a soft pur emanated through the room and Arex's gaze finally tracked up to see why Kit's head was raised ever so slightly.

It rested on someone's lap.

And the poor phoenix almost collapsed at seeing the almost gentle face of Niro staring down at her partner. His eyes bore into the kitsune with a neutral interest, and his hands were busily scratching at the bases of Kit's ears.

Arex couldn't help it. She collapsed to her knees at the sight, confusion overtaking her overbearing worry in the blink of an eye to suck the breath out of her on-sight, a breath that turned her legs to lead.

Kit looked like she was at a cross between feeling the heavenly bliss of an ear massage and squirming under the fiery hell of being in the clutches of a demon.

She couldn't figure out if she should feel relaxed or anxious…

But the soft thud of Arex's knees hitting the ground brought a piercing lime green gaze up to meet her wide eyes, the phoenix's body locking up under the gleaming irises pointed at her.

Even so, his fingers never stopped playing with Kit's ears.

" _You. Saw. Nothing._ "

Arex just squeaked and fell over, too shocked to even try to respond to that.


	46. Vault

Rogue Huntsman

Vault

«»

Arex wasn't really in the mood to go swimming. Even with the bikinis just arriving. She'd taken a liking to just lounging on the couch at the opposite end of Seyda to keep herself busy with her scroll.

Dante had long since left. Seyda fell back asleep on the couch. Anoel went to check on Lylac in the master bedroom. Kit was playing chess with GHOST on the dining room table.

And Ray was still out.

Or, at least, he was until the door to the apartment opened and Ray pushed himself inside.

He entered the apartment and silently scanned the room with his eyes, passing over everything inside before wordlessly making his way to the kitchen and opening the fridge.

He pulled out a carton of orange juice, setting it on the island before opening the cupboard above the sink to pull out a glass.

One hand holding it steady on the island, he filled the glass close to the rim before placing the carton back into the refrigerator.

He then leaned back against the island, facing the fridge as he quickly downed the entire drink.

Arex just quirked her head at that, but didn't say anything about it. He'd been gone though, she was more curious about that than his… drinking habits.

With juice.

"Never seen anyone have a drink before, Arex?" Ray calmly asked her as he focused his attention on rinsing his empty glass out and leaving it on the drying rack. "It's pretty normal, you'd know that if you left your room."

"I leave my room enough times to have seen someone down a drink," Arex replied evenly, still distractedly watching him. "I'm just wondering where you've been. You're still hurt."

"What are you? My mother?" Ray replied back, finally turning to return her gaze as he leaned against the counter. "I can look after myself."

"You had a _hole_ in your chest," Arex cut back dryly. "You could have looked _through_ yourself if you tried hard enough." Her mutter ended as she pushed herself up to sit straighter on the couch, softly resting her scroll down for now onto her outstretched legs.

Her eyes stayed on the cushions as she arched her back in a little stretch from not moving in a while, quietly pulling her legs up toward her chest and leaning them loosely against the back cushions to settle in again.

"I'm just thinking you should probably mend the damage before jumping off of anymore buildings."

"I have yet to land on something that's as stubborn as myself. I'm sure it's fine. But thanks for the concern, always nice to know someone who can barely lift a sword is worried about my wellbeing," Ray replied, quirking an eyebrow in mild amusement.

Arex opened her mouth to reply to that last statement, but quietly closed it after realizing he was mostly right there. She specifically designed her sword to be fairly lightweight. "I have the right to be worried, don't I?"

"About your sister, yes. You don't know me."

He was speaking harsh truths, but there didn't seem like there was any real reason for it. Unless he was trying to agitate her.

"And while you may have the _right_ to feel worried, doesn't mean you should, you don't owe me anything."

He saved her sister… she definitely felt like she owed him for that. "Still have the right to be," Arex muttered quietly to herself, trailing her gaze to her partner staring intently at GHOST's side of their holographic chessboard.

It was getting closer to dinner now. Arex usually used that to help timestamp the day, at least. Dinner meant it was getting late.

But it also gave her an excuse to do something productive, since she forgot all of her tech supplies back in her dorm room.

She'd need to go back to grab those at some point. Just not now.

"I do have a question, though," Arex said, glancing back to Ray as she curled her legs up more and loosely wrapped her arms around them.

"And that would be?" the boy responded, raising an eyebrow.

"How did you make it so GHOST could appear anywhere she wanted in here?" she asked curiously, eyes roaming away again to watch the AI's avatar walk about in the middle of their game board.

She'd just taken one of Kit's pieces. And was happily rubbing it in.

"See those cubes in each corner of the ceiling?" he asked, waiting for her to pay attention to them.

"Noticed them, but I just thought they were cameras," she replied.

"Why would I put _six_ cameras in _one_ room?" Ray asked incredulously, narrowing his eyes a fraction before continuing. "They're hologram projectors, each having 120 degrees of projection to cover the whole room," he explained with a deadpan glare. "She could appear as a full-sized human if she wanted."

Arex couldn't help but feel berated there, but it wasn't a very good assumption from her end. He just seemed content to make her realize how bad it was. "Does she like her small appearance?"

"It makes her feel special, apparently," Ray replied. His words were significantly calmer than his last response.

The phoenix smiled at that. "I don't blame her. It's cute, and I've never seen AI's take physical personified forms before, so she's easily special."

Arex eventually flicked her gaze away from the chess match to seek Ray out again, her hands starting to fiddle with the case of her scroll.

"By the way, is there anything you wanted to eat later? Ly's probably going to still be asleep by then, so I wanted to cook a little."

"Not particularly, I was just going to make hamburgers and call it a day. I have stuff to do later," Ray replied evenly.

"I can handle that then, if you'll be busy," she offered back.

"I can cook and _then_ work, Arex. It's called prioritization," Ray deadpanned again. "But since you look bored out of your mind, sure. Knock yourself out."

For the record, she _was_ bored. Incredibly bored without her toys. She just wanted something to do that'd at least be helpful for the others.

She hated relaxing like this without anything to do. And it really bothered her how useless she felt when looking at what everyone else was doing.

Even Anoel was actively sifting through her contacts to try to find family ties related to Quinn as she recovered.

Granted, she was doing it without any pants on and through her scroll, but at least she was _doing_ something with her time.

Arex was just… idling.

"It'll save you time and give me something to do. I'll just have to see if anyone else wants something," Arex replied, looking down at her curled legs before resting her chin on top of them.

"Then why are you still sitting there?"

"Anoel's busy and Ly's still asleep. But I can start it whenever," she responded.

"Ly will be hungry when she wakes up and the last time any of you had anything to eat was lunchtime," Ray listed off. "If you want to cook, then get up and look in the freezer for the burgers, buns are in the c-"

"Cupboard. Top left. Yeah, I know," Arex cut him off, sliding her legs off the couch to stand up. She had a quick look earlier when she was sifting through ingredients to make the curry.

It was kind of easy to remember where everything was. And it helped that it was all organized well too.

"Congratulations, you know Ly's system. I'll make the salad stuff in the meantime."

Arex pocketed her scroll and gave him a slightly sour look, if not also a little unsure of herself as she heard that. "You _really_ don't have to do anything, you know. It's easy to tell that you're not all… 'functional', yet. Especially that half of your body."

Arex pointed to the arm that was down at his side. She hadn't seen him use it yet since he came in here, or even lift it.

"It's fine, I'll fix it later," Ray replied dismissively, narrowing his violet eyes a fraction. "That's what I was going to do anyway."

The phoenix's own eyes met with his for a few long moments before she started padding her way over, walking around the breakfast bar again. "Fixing it is good, but you don't have to use it while it's weak right now."

"Which is why I'll use my semblance, I'm not exactly full of Aura, but I have enough to work with," Ray said pointedly, raising his right arm to create a small violet sphere in his palm.

Arex wasn't Anoel, but even she could tell when she was being lied to. The girl quietly crossed the stone-tiled floor in her socks to pluck the small hardlight ball out of his palm, placing it onto the counter before starting to lightly push him out of the kitchen.

The ball already starting to disintegrate.

"Go sit down and do something. I can handle this," she spoke bluntly, surprised that her little nudge actually forced him to take a step away.

"And put myself in the same boring position you were in?" An insulted expression crossed over his face as he frowned disdainfully. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Arex just pushed him a little harder, the boy starting to stumble a bit as she nudged him closer to the dining room. "Look, if a person like me who can barely lift a weighted sword can push you around like this, you really _aren't_ in any kind of position to argue."

"I paid for this apartment, I think I'm owed the right to stand my ground," Ray replied defensively, his frown deepening as he shifted his footing to try and gain some kind of stability.

It really didn't do much. "You may have the _right_ to, but it doesn't mean you should. Dinner will be ready in half an hour, which'll give Ly time to wake up."

She'd just managed to push Ray out of the kitchen before taking a step back, glancing up persistently at him as she rested her hands on her hips.

Sure, he had his shoes on and she was just standing in her ankle socks. Which only made him _that much_ taller than her at 6' compared to her 5'5.

But this was honestly her domain. She was comfortable here. So that didn't matter.

Or, it shouldn't. But she didn't let the intimidation of their current height difference show.

Besides, she liked her lithe stature.

Ray silently stared at her for a few moments with glowing, defiant eyes before his arms crossed.

" _Fine._ You can cook then," he growled, turning on his heel and walking toward the couch.

A small smile broke out on Arex's face as she nodded, shooing him away as she turned to start prepping the ingredients she'd need for the burgers.

In that meantime, she quickly shot Anoel a small message wondering if they were fine with that for food.

They were.

* * *

Holographic fireworks shot out from the tips of GHOST's fingers as she paraded around the dining room table, a prideful expression glowing across her small face.

She kicked over any chess pieces in her path as she periodically pointed toward Kitsuki and put on a gloating laugh.

Kit's dejected face turned down to roll her tipped king around, knowing full well that she'd lost to the small pixie.

She was smarter than her, after all.

" _Congrats. Wanna play again later?"_ Kit asked, taking her finger away from the chess piece to sign. " _I wanna play you in cards too."_

GHOST immediately ceased her victory march to place her hands on her hips.

"Only if you're prepared to _lose_ again," she replied with a challenging smirk.

Kit just nodded indifferently, more excited at the prospect of getting to play with the pixie than assuredly losing. " _It'll be a battle of who can count cards faster."_

"With a clock speed of over three petahertz, I _know_ I can count faster than you, but I accept your challenge anyway," GHOST said, sticking her tongue out as she winked.

Kit smiled and nodded again, giving the small avatar a tilt of her white head. " _I always liked playing cards with someone, so it'll be fun. We can bring in other people too."_

It'd add more variables. But Kit was just looking for entertainment.

"I can bring in others if you'd like," GHOST said as she nodded, before 5 other copies of herself, each a distinctively different color flashed beside her before fading away. "I don't have any way to handle the cards though, no real hands."

She clenched and unclenched her digital fingers to demonstrate to Kit that she was still just a hologram.

" _Arex can help you,"_ Kit signed, happy to volunteer her partner up to play with them. " _You and her make a good team."_

GHOST's gaze fell to the phoenix prepping food in the kitchen for a moment before turning back to Kitsuki. "We'll need to wait for her to finish eating first. In the meantime, wanna play some video games?"

Kitsuki quirked her head at that in question, confusion sifting through her eyes as she did. " _Video games?"_

"Yeah, you've never heard of video games before?"

Kit just shook her head no.

GHOST's smile brightened. "That's okay, I'll sho-"

"No, you won't."

Ly's voice pierced the relatively calm atmosphere authoritatively as she entered the room through the hallway entrance with Anoel, instantly shutting the AI up. "You show her video games and we won't see either of you for the next few hours."

Kit only looked more confused at that as she glanced over to the two just walking in. Was it really that engaging? Or did it just take really long to play it?

Ly's gaze fell to Arex as she cut up salad ingredients behind the kitchen counter, sliding them from cutting board to bowl after a few seconds.

"I was gonna cook something, but if you wanna do it, that's fine. Need any help with anything?" Ly asked.

Kit watched Arex glance up for a moment to meet the woman's gaze, those bright eyes flicking to Ray on the couch just briefly before turning back. "If you want. Dinner's relatively simple."

Kit saw Ray's gaze turn to glare at Arex in the corner of her vision before he shook his head and turned back to his scroll in his lap.

He looked… annoyed.

"Alright, anything you're not working on right now? I can take over for you while you do that," Ly suggested, smiling a little at the girl as she headed toward the kitchen, sparing Anoel a small gaze and gesturing toward the couch as she did so.

Anoel seemed to have noticed Ray's aggravation too and just sent Ly an amused smirk, leaning away from the corner she'd found to cross the open room and make her way to the couch.

She calmly sat herself down between the distracted boy and Seyda's napping form curled up on a pile of cushions, glancing over in intrigue to see the cat cuddling with her leopard tail in her sleep.

Arex just hummed in thought for a few seconds as she cut up a pile of onions. "I wanted to make the burgers from scratch, so I just finished getting the meat and everything mixed together in that bowl behind me. I haven't kneaded individual patties out yet."

There was an empty tray just next to the bowl as well, something Arex was just going to use to help her carry them all out to the grill on the balcony.

Which wasn't fired up yet.

"Then I'll do that and season them, improve the taste a little," Ly replied with a smile, pulling out a pack of gum from one of the drawers. "Open your mouth."

Arex confusedly did as asked as she turned the onions around to dice them another way, Ly slipping one of the pieces between her parted lips before pulling away.

"Helps with concentration, and the onions. Though I've been told to prevent crying, you should avoid making an emotional attachment."

Arex slowly nodded as she smiled a little, starting to chew. It was spearmint, which she was actually a fan of.

"Funny, but kind of depressing since I'm the one cutting them up…" she responded, eyeing the way she was carving through layers of onions with a sharpened blade.

They were nice knives, too.

Ly chuckled before tapping her on the nose. "Better make it painless then."

"Hard to comfort them all when all I have is cold metal and a sharp edge," Arex replied back, smiling a little more but pulling slightly away from the bump to her nose.

Kit saw it. She wanted to bump Arex's nose now.

"I've been told metal makes great friends. It can be a little cold at first, but it eventually warms up," Ly replied amusedly. "I'm sure _Ray_ can attest to that."

She received the middle finger in return to that snide remark.

Arex just smiled lightly at that as she tried to ignore it.

"It doesn't warm up to just about anyone. I'm not sure it wants to with me, and I don't know why. I don't really blame it though…" Arex replied, glancing to Ray for a moment before turning that stray attention to Ly.

She didn't really see herself as a person to seek out and get to know.

"Maybe that's because it needs to be heated first…" Ly whispered in response.

Arex frowned a little at that. She was a blacksmith, a baker, and a chef. That was literally her job description, but, "I don't really know how."

"Easy. Take a blowtorch to it," Ly returned as she spared a look before returning her gaze to the patties she was steadily forming. "Metaphorically speaking, of course."

"It's kind of hard, though, to do that. For me, anyway," Arex replied in a soft mutter, keeping it out of his hearing range. Or at least, trying to. "Every time I talk with him, it just feels like I'm having a conversation with someone whose better than me. And I feel like I'll mess up if I say the wrong thing."

"Are you trying to impress him?" Ly asked, keeping to the same volume as Arex. "Because you've already done that, he's just not showing it."

Arex frowned again at that. People kept bringing that up, but she still had trouble coming to terms with actually believing it. "I guess I am, in a way. But I'm more afraid of letting him down."

"Again, _easy_. Watch this, kiddo," Ly said as she finished kneading the last of the patties and turned to her cousin on the couch.

Arex immediately paled a little at what she was about to do.

"Ray? Are you going to the Vault tonight?"

"Yes."

"Take Arex with you then," Ly ordered him, keeping a calm and complacent gaze on him as he returned one with his violet eyes.

He didn't give a response, only narrowing his eyes a fraction as he blinked.

"Looks like you're going on a field trip, Arex. You're welcome," Ly said as she turned to the girl and winked.

Arex's gaze just glanced concernedly to Ray's significantly harsher one directed toward Ly, turning her own meek eyes just as quickly as she looked away.

She just flushed a little and stared back at Ly in apprehension.

"A-Are you sure he's alright with that?" she asked.

"He's not, but I'm not giving him a choice," Ly replied carelessly. "He'll do as I say, or he'll be going back to Beacon."

She… guessed that was a pretty bad punishment for him, then.

Arex wasn't opposed to going with him. Her intrigue actually spiked at the word 'Vault', but she wouldn't have really asked about it.

GHOST apparently heard the conversation and finally faced away from Kitsuki to glance at Ray with her arms crossed. "Well, it's about _time_ you paid me a visit. Nearly two months since you last came home."

 _Aaaand_ , Arex's interest suddenly _skyrocketed_.

GHOST was… at the Vault?

"So?" Ray responded bluntly, meeting her scornful gaze.

" _So?_ Two months, Ray. You said you'd be back after you came back from _Sukariko_ , let alone Mistral."

"I had things to do in Mistral," Ray replied with his uncaring tone. "Like drinking."

GHOST shook her head disdainfully. "Well, _at least_ you'll be bringing a _girl_ home with you. I'll let you off on that."

" _Oh_ , I _like_ the sassy little pixie," Anoel commented, peering over the couch at GHOST as she steadily stroked the sleeping Seyda's fluffy tail. "Treat Arex nice, will you?"

Arex's eyes were still wide from earlier, not really hearing that last part.

She was… going to meet GHOST in person?

* * *

The black airship was surprisingly big on the inside, and pleasantly smooth under Vale's turbulence. Especially for a pilot's cockpit.

That was pretty relieving, considering Arex was sitting with her hands in her lap in the pilot seat of the speeding vessel. She actually enjoyed how fast and high up they were traveling.

The controls in front of her were moving about on their own, her eyes watching as dials steadily rose and fell as GHOST manned the aircraft's primary systems.

She was just… sitting in the control seat. Doing nothing.

Ray was co-piloting behind her.

She heard him unbuckle his harness from the copilot seat, standing on the small walkway to the right hand side to walk closer to the glass screen as they approached the mountains.

"We're almost there, considering we've just dropped out of mach 1," he stated as he spared a moment to glance at the phoenix.

She just gave a small nod as she tried to unbuckle too, only for the button to not work. Apparently GHOST wanted her to stay in her seat for now. But she did at least sense their deceleration.

That was at least something she was good at, considering she needed the natural attunement to feel precise velocities.

"I noticed. Where exactly are we landing?" she asked.

"Inside the mountain."

Ray's reply was blunt as he moved away from the glass windscreen and headed to the rear of the ship.

Sanus' mountain range bordering the kingdom of Vale quickly became closer and larger as GHOST weaved the dropship to align it between two of the peaks.

"You _may_ want to hold onto something," GHOST said as her hologram appeared on the dashboard by the controls.

Arex glanced through the pilot's window to see what was going on, but she took a hold of the sides of her chair to do as asked.

She still didn't see a door of any kind yet.

But she did hear the clicking of a buckle behind her, which was a good indication that something was going to happen.

It's just, the time she _wanted_ to use to think about what that might be was cut short as the dropship suddenly rolled onto its back and nosedived right toward the juncture between the two mountain peaks.

Speed suddenly kicked back up again as they dropped, the snowy surface below homing in on the glass window and downward nose of the airship just before a slit formed in the snow-covered rock.

The slit gradually widened as a tunnel shown through its opening, sliding just far enough to fit the dropship as it dove right into it.

Oh…

So that's where the door was.

The dropship's reverse thrusters soon fired as Arex began to see what appeared to be a landing pad, the backblast visible from the sides of the cockpit in bright streaks of orange as the ship's speed dissipated.

Their velocity gradually slowed down as GHOST righted the ship, hydraulic whirring indicating landing gear as the ship touched down.

The second it did, both Arex and Ray's buckles automatically disconnected and the door at the back of the ship opened.

"Welcome home!" GHOST chirped with a smile. "Don't forget to wipe your feet."

"I'll wipe my feet when you order a doormat," Ray replied, rolling his eyes as he walked to the back of the ship, stopping right before he hopped out to turn back to Arex's wandering gaze. "You coming?"

Arex had to pry herself away from her curious roaming of the hangar she could see through the window, turning quickly to distractedly follow Ray out. "Yeah. Coming."

Ray hopped out the back and stretched a little as he slowly paced his way toward a steel-gray structure illuminated in the distance, occasionally looking back to see if Arex had stopped.

She had.

"She's not going to wait forever, you know," Ray called out as he turned back to the structure. "She's more impatient than _I_ am."

Yeah… yeah, she could tell. Arex's eyes just roamed for a _few_ more seconds as she wondered if she could find all the components that controlled the doors above.

But all she could manage in that short time was tracing its power cables down to disappear into the water surrounding the raised, rock platform they were on.

Which she'd just realized was surrounded by water from the melted snow above… considering her gaze had been staring at the ceiling that whole time.

She finally broke her gaze away and jogged a little to catch up with Ray, the boy waiting by the doors of the structure for her.

"Sorry. I was just curious how the entry worked," she apologized, falling in line with him again.

"This one uses guide rails to slide slates of rock open and closed. There are other entrances dotted around here and there that operate differently, including my _least_ favorite…" Ray paused for a moment to offer her a helping hand up the steps. "The underwater dive."

The boy shuddered a little after uttering those words.

He didn't sound very pleased about the underwater bit. "There any reason why it's your least favorite?" She asked, looking at his offered hand hesitantly for a moment before taking it.

Did something go wrong the last time he used it?

"He's scar-"

" _GHOST,_ I will delete you if you finish that sentence!" He called out to interrupt the voice erupting from a hidden speaker system.

Arex looked up to try to find it for a few moments, but she brought her gaze back ahead of them as she was pulled up the stairs.

He was… scared of something? That was… actually a little unbelievable for Arex. She'd been picturing Ray as that 'fears nothing' type, due to how stubborn he was.

Ray gestured for Arex to follow him as he led her down a white, well-lit corridor, leading to a pair of glass elevator doors.

"Step inside when you're ready, we haven't even scratched the surface yet, _literally._ "

They… hadn't? That entrance was pretty big.

He stepped inside and took a step to the left, allowing Arex space to fit inside comfortably.

She stepped in after him, keeping closer to the wall than him now that she had her hand to herself again. He pressed a button once she was clear of the door, panels closing shut behind them before the elevator started to descend.

Nothing but rock and metal beams passed by through the window as she waited anxiously to see what waited for them below.

Only, the elevator _kept_ descending long after she thought it'd be close by then.

And it was getting exponentially faster too.

A small look of worry suddenly donned on her as she felt her light weight start to quickly disappear. The girl's eyes snapped down as her hair began to drift upward a little, suddenly feeling the floor slip away from the balls of her feet as she started to float up.

This thing was moving fast…

Ray turned his gaze to face her as her body floated high enough for her to reach his eye level, before he gently placed his hand on her shoulder and pushed her down to meet the floor again.

"E-Erm, thanks…" she muttered quietly.

He just nodded, but he didn't seem too surprised by what happened.

"Same thing happened to Seyda once, but I seem to have completely misjudged how lightweight you really are."

"Yeah… happens a lot," Arex commently softly, bringing her eyes back to the glass in front of them. "You're not the only one who's misjudged it."

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you how much I weighed, so we'll just pretend this never happened."

Considering he could hold her down while staying grounded himself, which meant he was supporting _both_ their weights, she figured he just weighed a lot more than normal.

Which made sense, she guessed. If he had any kind of metal augmentations.

He kept her from losing that footing again, holding her there just as the tight elevator shaft suddenly widened until they were both suspended in an expansive cavern.

A really… _really_ … expansive cavern.

Red Dust veins webbed across the far walls of the dark, open cave system, overwhelming what few other colors lined the surrounding rock. Each vein faintly glowed to illuminate the massive white structure far below, which reflected that glow in its embedded architecture. It looked like it spanned in all directions through the cavern itself, and filtered down into the rock at its base.

Which meant this already impressive area was just level one of… many.

"How many sections and levels are there?" Arex asked, wanting to walk up to the window. But seeing as they hadn't slowed down yet, she wasn't going to try taking any weightless steps.

That didn't stop her hair from floating up a little into her face though, which she kept out of her vision with a delicate hand.

"Enough to fill approximately 45 kilometers down. If I had to wager a guess, there's over 40 levels, each one having maybe two or three subsections," Ray replied as his face contorted in thought. "Level 7, which I know for a fact will be your favorite, is the biggest by far."

Her eyes were already wide from the sheer volume of possible space this Vault took up, and how long it must've taken to even build in the first place. But what he said last caught her attention immediately, curiosity piquing.

Her favorite?

"What's on level 7?" she asked quickly, keeping her gaze roaming over the facility below as they slowly approached its ground floor.

Ray's lips curled into a smirk as he slowly retracted his hand from her shoulder.

She felt herself float again for just a second before the elevator finally slowed to a halt, the doors eventually opening once they stopped moving altogether.

"My favorite toy."

 _Toy?_ So, level 7 was just going to be both their favorites? Arex didn't really know what Ray could've seen as his toy, or his favorite toy, considering anything could fit that criteria.

And she still didn't know him well enough to know what he liked to play with.

She just knew he wasn't a fan of delicate blacksmithing, which was what he hired her for.

"Sounds… fun?" she ventured out enough to say, following Ray out of the elevator as she tried to get used to her normal weight again.

Ray led her to a t-junction before taking a left, Arex tagging along just behind him as she noticed a displeased look on his face.

"For someone so evidently excited to see visitors, you have a _real_ funny way of showing it…" he called out as he stopped at yet another junction.

The place was like a maze, but Arex didn't have much time to look around before light, almost inaudible footfalls could be heard coming from around the corner.

And before the phoenix had time to utter a single word, a short, happy-looking blonde girl slid around the corner in her stark white dress and knee-high socks.

"Hello!"

Arex's jaw almost dropped as she stopped in a startle, locking up entirely with a confused but excited gaze, if not also riddled with disbelief.

"G-GHOST?" That girl… as in a _girl-girl_ … was an AI?

"I bet you thought her avatar was all just CGI, didn't you? Bet you feel a little stupid now," Ray commented to the side as he smirked a little.

"W-Well, y-yeah, I did. But… I-I just thought…" Arex trailed off, head slowly tilting as she stared in curious wonder at GHOST's physical form in front of her. She was… even warm, which meant she had body heat.

She… she wanted to hug it- her. She _really_ wanted to hug GHOST right now, like she'd been wanting to.

"Carbon nanorod skeleton powered by the highest grade synthetic muscles, encased by real, genetically grown hair and skin. All powered by a rechargeable Dust core," Ray listed evenly. "Bet you won't find _this_ in Atlas Research and Development."

Arex's gaze was still locked in its wide stupor, staring at GHOST's beaming face and eyes as the words trickled through her semi-conscious attention.

Ray turned to GHOST and quirked a brow. "Enjoying the new model?"

GHOST reflexively nodded and gazed at her hands as she curled and extended her fingers. "It's much lighter than the other one, I can actually run now without draining the power supply."

Arex's own fingers twitched slightly as she suddenly realized she'd been staring in silence for a few seconds, finally coming to _slight_ terms with what stood in front of her. "You said _carbon_ nanorod skeleton?" she asked quietly.

GHOST looked to her with gleaming blue eyes. "C'mon Arex, try to keep up, if you're blown away by _this_ , you'll become catatonic with all the other stuff we have."

"N-No, it's just, carbon means durable and…" Arex quickly got over her stupor and shook her head, "that means I can hug you."

GHOST and Ray shared a confused look before the AI turned to her and nodded. "Well… I guess so, yeah."

"You sound surprised," Arex said, fingers starting to play with the hem of her sweater again. "May I?"

GHOST nodded before extending her arms in invitation. Her legs straightening out to brace herself, but they'd only just gotten into place by the time Arex darted forward and wrapped her arms around her.

The impact was marginal at best, Arex's lightweight hardly doing anything to the 5'6 girl in front of her as the phoenix's hair slowly drifted down from her movement.

"S-Sorry, I just… wasn't expecting to see such a real version of you," Arex muttered quietly, squeezing her arms around GHOST's frame. It felt _real_. As real as it looked.

"Then _girl_ , you are in for a surprise. This Vault has only been in development for 5 years," GHOST replied, returning the embrace. "You're squishier than I thought you'd be."

Arex smiled a little as she pulled her head back with a small fluster, not sure what GHOST meant by that. "O-Okay? And I look forward to seeing it. if I'm allowed to see it all, that is."

"I _really_ don't want to go back to Beacon right now, so sure," Ray remarked to the side.

Arex's smile grew a little as she slipped her arms away from around GHOST's body, taking a step back to give her space again. It sounded like Ly had the power to keep her promise to Ray, about sending him back to Beacon.

"Well, I have all day then, if we wanted to get started," Arex replied, swaying her arms a little at her sides. Something she couldn't stop due to her own excitement. And she was a little ashamed to realize she was bouncing lightly on the balls of her light feet.

"I'll let GHOST handle the tour," Ray replied, looking down to his weakened left arm. "I ought to get this fixed before it causes permanent damage. I'll catch up later."

With that, he began to walk away, heading in a different direction to the one GHOST was suddenly dragging Arex in.

"Come on, the _42_ levels of this facility are waiting to be ogled at," the AI said demandingly.

"R-Right…" Arex guessed Ray was wrong with what he thought earlier, then. Since he said 40 levels in the elevator. "As long as you don't mind me ogling, anyway."

"I built 40 of them, so no, I don't mind _at all_ ," she replied with a smirk.

"Okay, then I won't feel too bad if I gawk either," Arex replied, hoping she'd be able to keep a cap on her internal squeals and keep them from slipping out. "How much of it can I touch?"

"Well, aside from the E.W. lab, and Central Processing, you can touch most of it without risk to your wellbeing," GHOST returned, pulling Arex into an elevator. "This level is just for show anyway. The real fun begins on the next floor."

Arex happily nodded to that, keeping pace with GHOST's surprisingly firm pulling for a girl in slippery socks. "Just let me know if I'm looking to touch something bad, then. I'm actually really excited to see this… and for what's on level 7, too."

GHOST's smirk widened. "We'll leave level 7 until you've seen the other 5."

Arex couldn't help but whine a little, but they were going to pass through those levels anyway. So she didn't complain. "Okay… What's first then? For level 2?"

"Living quarters, recreational facilities, and the base of this first cavern. I can show you the hot springs while we're at it too."

Arex's mind jumped a little at that, flicking her gaze to GHOST for a moment in question. "There's a hot spring down here too?" Speaking of that… How many caverns were connected here?

"Yeah! The Fire Dust veins heat the water that permeates through the rock on the mountain. It's completely potable too, if you like drinking hot water, that is," GHOST replied with a bright smile.

Seemed she was reluctant to let go of Arex's hand too, which the phoenix honestly didn't mind.

"Does anyone use it recreationally?" Arex asked curiously, wondering if it was alright to actually enter it.

"I've seen Ly use it a couple of times, but the others all tend to use the swimming pool and steam rooms, the temperature stays toasty without it burning," The AI explained. "Most of the hot springs are completely untouched, now that I mention it."

"That… actually sounds really nice," Arex muttered, keeping her eyes on the elevator doors in front of them. She'd always liked heated bodies of water. She liked them far more than pools of any kind, actually.

Maybe it was just because they felt meditative for her.

"You seem more excited at the prospect of dipping in the hot springs more than you did with Ly's pool, is that your Affinity talking, by any chance?" GHOST asked curiously.

Arex gave a light, quizzicle hum for a moment as she brought her gaze back to GHOST, but it quickly turned a little meek at seeing her gaze. "That's because I am. I… like it more when the water's heated to higher temperatures. It kind of has a calming effect on me, the same one an open fire has when I'm near it."

She didn't know if that was her personally, or her Affinity actually comforting her from those sources. But she did know she could easily fall in love with any fire or soothing warmth that surrounded her.

"That's interesting, maybe we have something else here that may appeal to your tastes, once it's safer to approach, that is," the AI replied, smiling considerately.

Arex's gaze grew curious, but also a little concerned. "Is it dangerous to get near? Even for me?"

GHOST hummed in thought. "Further experimentation will be required to determine a conclusive answer. We still don't know much about it yet, but it's _hot_ … _really hot_."

Arex _liked_ really hot, though. But she stood by GHOST's warning, especially if the AI was putting that much emphasis on it. "I'll… keep my distance then."

The AI nodded to her response. "That's probably a wise decision, at least for now."

The phoenix nodded to that, but her curiosity stuck with her. Just… how hot was she talking?

Before she could ask anymore questions, though, the elevator came to a slow stop and the doors in front of them slid open.

"Welcome to your potential new home!"

* * *

 **Arex seems to be getting comfortable, which is a good thing. Really good, especially for someone like her who lets anxiety dictate her life. _And_ she got to meet GHOST in person! Something she's been _dying_ to do, but has been too nervous to even hint at the fact that she wanted to.**

 **Ray and GHOST's Vault should hold her interest for a long while, too. But something tells me it's only really GHOST who's the reason why that interest is so strong.**

 **Arex is actually going through some nice character change, which has been slowly developing ever since her intro into the story. She and Anoel both are.**

 **She'll need the confidence, for what'll happen.**

 **Another omake down below.**

 **For now,** _ **Favorite**_ **and** _ **Follow**_ **.**

 **I look forward to seeing** _ **REVIEWS**_ **for this. You'll be introduced to a LOT of concepts of mine. Feel free to give me your thoughts.**

 **Cya XP**

* * *

 **Omake:** _by Xera Stark_

* * *

"Ohmygodohmygodohmygod-"

" _Jaune_?!"

"H-HELP!"

"What happened?!"

"I DON'T KNOW! IT JUST HAPPENED, OKAY! WHY DOES EVERYONE KEEP ASKING?!"

"Because you're _standing_ on a _landmine_ in the middle of the _CAFETERIA_!"

"I _KNOW_!"

"Oh my god! Jaune what-"

"Screw it!" Jaune dangerously threw his hands in the air, practically _stomping_ on the mine. "Just kill me now!"

"Wait! Jaune, please, if you explain what happened, I might be able to help you," Pyrrha pleaded, her voice growing softer.

"If you _wanted_ to _help me_ , then _why_ are you standing _so far away_?!" Jaune threw his arms down now, staring at the redhead with bright, bushy, ungodly annoyed eyes.

Pyrrha's shoulders huddled together as she shrunk in a little, standing with the crowd by the door.

Jaune alone in the center of the room.

"Because I have to know that I can trust that you won't move."

"Pyrrha! That's like telling me you straight up think I'll jump off this thing as soon as you get close!"

"W-Will you?"

" _NO_!"

Pyrrha sucked in a breath as she nodded. For moral support, Nora helped nudge her comrade forward into the blank emptiness in front of her, starting her perilous journey.

After the gruelling seconds of silence ticked by, she managed to position herself just in front of Jaune's irritated frame, his eyes locked with hers.

"Okay," she breathed out, trying but failing to relax her shoulders as she turned her gaze down to the obsidian black mine beeping quietly beneath Jaune's sneaker. "So, what exactly happened?"

"I was _walking_ back to the table when some ice cream chick dropped what I _thought_ was a burnt pancake on the ground right as I was stepping by," Jaune calmly, but emphatically, explained. " _Turns out!_ It's not a goddamn pancake at all!"

Pyrrha quickly held up her hands and hushed him, trying to sooth him as she lightly gripped his shoulders and got him to stop moving around so much. "It'll be okay, Jaune. We'll get you through this."

" _This. Is. Bullshi-_ "

"Jaune? What are you… standing on…?" somebody else's light voice came out, and Jaune _snapped_.

" _So help me god._ I _will_ jump off this damn explosive if people _don't stop saying_ -" his mouth slammed shut as he glanced to the side and saw Arex flinching under his bloodshot gaze, an immediate sense of guilt washing over him as she stepped back.

But what made that _worse_ was who was with her.

"A-Ah, s-sorry," Jaune quickly mustered, eyes avoiding the mass of black Arex was standing beside.

Niro's green eyes bore into his soul like a damn railgun with an invisibility cloak, Jaune's voice all but dying and leaving his body behind in a sacrificial act of survival.

"P-Please forgive m-"

"Everyone out." Niro spoke coldly.

And just like that, the room was deathly empty. Even Pyrrha was gone in a heartbeat.

Jaune stared with wide, fearful eyes all over again as Arex quietly closed the doors to the cafeteria, leaving Jaune alone with a ticking time bomb and a landmine.

"L-Listen, I know you don't like me, but I didn't mean to snap at your teammate." Jaune quickly tried to lick his wounds while he still could, desperately hoping he didn't just sign his death warrant as the teen in black slowly paced further into the room.

Staying coldly silent.

"I'll make it up to her!" Jaune tried again, his spine almost rattling out of his back as he quivered and shook. "A-Anything! I-I'll do anything!"

"Stop talking."

"Okay," Jaune squeaked, holding completely still now.

He was dead.

He was so… so dead.

"Don't move."

He won't! Really! He won't!

Jaune held completely still, even his eyes stopped tracking Niro's movements as the black-clad teen slowly positioned Jaune's body between himself and the cafeteria doors.

"After I get you off this bomb, you can make it up to her."

Jaune's entire body visibly shuddered as he breathed a sigh of relief, his breath quickly coming back to him after holding it since birth. "Oh thank god, you're gonna help m-M-"

A powerful force _crushed_ into Jaune's side as his body crumpled over Niro's swinging leg, _everything_ feeling like a twig snapping as a jarring pain ripped into him.

Everything almost went black as Niro's leg carried _through_ him, Jaune's body turning into a human cannon ball as it ragdolled forward, _off_ the mine, and _straight through_ the closed cafeteria doors.

And the literal _moment_ he broke through them, the entire cafeteria erupted in a fiery blast of shrapnel and scorched tables.

Jaune rolled out of the billowing smoke straight into Pyrrha's arms, the girl quickly cradling him and checking him over as his white aura shimmered across his skin.

Mending the bruises.

Behind him, out of the smoke and flaming room, Niro wordlessly walked out of the dark haze. His pale hand brushed ash from his shoulder for a brief moment before tipping his hat up, metal beams creaking and collapsing to the ground in the cafeteria just behind him.

His eyes fell on Jaune, then thankfully dragged to Arex as she stood in her own little world off to the side.

"Let's just get takeout," Niro said, his voice surprisingly neutral. "Cafeteria's off the menu, it seems."


	47. Recruitment

Rogue Huntsman

Recruitment

«»

The elevator had opened up to reveal a large, carpeted living room, spanning far enough to hold a reasonably large corner couch, a coffee table, dining table, and a piano.

Two of the walls were entirely made of glass, connecting in the corner to reveal the massively expansive cavern bottom that held levels 1 and 2. All with the same twinkling glow of the Dust veins in the distance, looking like a sea of stars against the pitch black rock encasement of the cave.

"Here, you'll find the living area, bedrooms, hygienic facilities, and various other amenities," GHOST remarked as she stepped down into the living space before pointing to a hallway to their left. "That way takes you to the bedrooms and by extension, their private bathrooms."

She paused as she turned 180 degrees on the spot to point in the opposite direction.

"And that's the other stuff. Swimming pool, kitchenette, uh… _Oh!_ And the spa area."

That was… a lot on one floor. And this was only one of the shallower levels too, which only brought Arex to look around in a little more disbelief. "I like the view…"

She didn't want to comment on _everything_ like she wanted to, especially considering she wanted to _see_ everything, so she just muttered that simple thing she liked.

It made the entire room feel suspended through the glass, looking out into the cavern, which was a feeling she loved. It made the room feel high up in a dark sky.

"Me too, fun fact though; we've only explored about 30% of the entire cavern system here. Below level 42, there's about another 25 kilometer drop, maybe even further than that. That's just on a _vertical_ plane. Horizontally, this place gets way larger, just to give you a scale of how big this place is."

Arex quirked a delicate brow at that, looking out the window again as she nodded. "What's stopping you from going further down?"

"The bedrock is incredibly tough to mine away given the rising heat, and the only thing we have that's actually capable of penetrating it requires a rig to keep it stable, and a whole lotta power to keep it running too, considering it fires projected beams of supercharged particles," GHOST replied. "It's also a _reeaally_ slow process."

That… almost sounded like the miniaturized one Ray had her build. "Must be heavy, too, so getting it up and down is a huge issue. Have you scouted out the rest of the cavern though? Is it all reachable without the need to break through barriers?"

She kind of wanted to fly down there now, actually. Just to check it out.

GHOST nodded, "Mostly yeah, it's good that you have a pair of wings, else you'd need a suit to reach some of the entrances."

Arex smiled a little, interested to know that she could actually explore deeper if she wanted to. "I've never flown underground before, so I don't know what it's like without updrafts and wind currents. But I think it'll be fun, if you wanted me to fly you around the cavern below at some point."

"The air's pretty still actually and as for me, I can view it through specialised bodies and drones," GHOST responded as she shook her head with a light smile. "This isn't the only frame I have, and if you turn to your right, you'll see that."

Arex turned her head with a light flutter of her raven hair to lock eyes with a pair of maids, both giving the phoenix a small wave as her eyes widened.

"I have multiple bodies, each designed with a specific purpose. As you can see, these two are for making sure this level is spotless," GHOST continued, "but I also have bodies for mining, forging, lab work, general labor, and just about anything to keep the Vault running. There's about a thousand active right now, mostly downstairs, and another 2500 on standby if I need them."

Arex's mouth snapped closed as she realized it was hanging open a little, eyes taking in the individual actions and persons standing in front of her.

They looked like GHOST's model that was taking her around for a tour, just with different outfit attire.

They were shorter too, if only by a couple of inches. Both possessing a pair of bright green eyes that stared up at Arex.

"Y-You can… control them all?" Arex managed to ask, slowly walking over to the two maids and walking around them, watching as their emerald gazes followed her movements a bit.

"Yeah, I can control them all. I do it all the time," GHOST replied as Arex continued examining the maids. "For instance…"

The maid on the left raised her hand up and laid her palm out flat before the maid to her right slapped it.

"I can make them high five."

Arex could hear the smirk in her voice as the pair of maids suddenly jumped her, wrapping their arms around her frame and squeezing tightly.

"Or hug you."

A surprised squeak left Arex's lips as she locked up, legs snapping to a sudden stop as she felt slightly squished between the two bodies.

That, and her face quickly dipped into the red. "S-So they need y-your input? O-Or can they a-act independently?" Arex tried to get out, head leaning away slightly as one of the maids brushed her red cheek with its own.

"A bit of both, each body is preprogrammed with a specific set of commands, but they still need my Central Processing Core in order to operate. Pretty much everything in this facility does," GHOST spoke out from behind her.

The phoenix was starting to get a little warm as the other maid holding her started to nuzzle her shoulder and neck. Arex had never been good at keeping her fluster under control.

Still, the logistics of all functionality sourced from a single processing AI felt… dangerous.

"I-Isn't that a lot of pressure on you?" Arex asked slowly, eyes looking in worry at GHOST as her blush seemed to finally simmer down a little.

GHOST clapped her hands to dismiss the maids before shaking her head. "You underestimate just how much 3 petahertz is. If every scroll, terminal, and logical processing plant were to combine, their collective clock speed and bitrate would barely scratch 1 petahertz."

Arex managed to get her breathing under control as the two bodies stepped away, her legs urging to work again as she quickly made her way back to GHOST's side with a few small but rushed steps. "I meant on you personally. It's… a lot of responsibility on you to run absolutely everything at all times. Among all the rest of your responsibilities."

GHOST nodded. "It is, hence why I create subroutines in order to divide my attention to specific, but important tasks. It gives me breathing room that way."

Arex's worry melted away a little as she slowly nodded in return, looking more at ease. "Breathing room is nice, but don't you get lonely here? It's such a large facility… and it doesn't all need to be run at once during all times of day, either."

"I've been doing this for five years now, but… I guess it can be pretty lonely. Part of the reason why I made so many bodies is to have the feeling of other people here. I've also been told that I might have a bit of a personality disorder."

The phoenix felt a little bad hearing that. And if she joined them… she'd be able to keep GHOST company, for however little presence her single living body could offer, anyway. "Personality disorder?"

Arex hadn't exactly thought too much about that, but when Ray was in trouble, she'd seen GHOST flash different colors.

Mostly green.

But, she just assumed those were just different protocols.

"Do your protocols have different personalities?" Arex asked softly.

GHOST smiled at her and nodded once. "They do, yes. But~ it can get a little crowded when they all want to take the wheel."

That explained the colors trying to take over. "I can see why someone might say that, then. But isn't that just your personalities compartmentalized into certain directives? With specific purposes?"

The personas could just be driving those protocols forward, making sure they happen.

"It's… difficult to explain using words with no kind of illustration," GHOST replied hesitantly. "What you see right now is technically five entities. I'm a combination of each of them, like a manifestation of all of them. If you understand what I mean."

"Doesn't that just make you a person?" Arex asked simply, an almost innocent ignorance in her words.

"Perhaps… but that would make each protocol its own person too… The only thing that separates _my_ existence from _theirs_ is my personality core, or matrix. AI science is really difficult to understand without some kind of experience in it, even for me," GHOST answered truthfully. "Hell, my existence itself was a total fluke on Ray's part."

Arex blinked wordlessly for a few seconds, silently processing GHOST's words with a little shock on her face. "He… _accidentally_ made you?"

GHOST smiled at Arex's response. "Yeah, he did. 'An accident, but not a mistake.' As he puts it."

Arex eventually returned the smile with a tiny one of her own, but she couldn't help but still feel a little bad about it in the end. "I'm glad he did, then. You're a happy accident, and I like to think of you as more of a person than an artificial intelligence."

Arex offered her words with a growing smile, tilting her head a little as she shrugged one of her shoulders.

"You're… anything _but_ artificial. For me, anyway," she finished.

"I'm happy that you think of me that way. However, we should get moving. Unless you'd like to play the piano over there," GHOST's voice was noticeably lighter after Arex's compliment, the AI gesturing to the piano by the wall. "I just finished fixing Ray up, so he's waiting for us on level 7."

Just the mention of level 7 piqued Arex's interest again as her gaze quickly bolstered attention. "We can move on, then. I can't play the piano either way."

"Well, up next we have the hospital," GHOST said, offering her hand to Arex, which the phoenix didn't hesitate to take again. "It's there that I want to do something with you, while I have the chance."

As Arex's fingers distractedly interlaced with GHOST's again, her head couldn't help but tilt a little at what was said. Even as GHOST led them back to the elevator. "A medical check up?"

The AI nodded. "With your permission of course. I just wanna do some small tests before we go down even further. The hospital is exactly what it sounds like anyway."

Just some small tests didn't sound so bad, and she figured it wouldn't keep them away from going further for too long. So Arex gave another small nod, the elevator doors sliding closed again. "I'm fine with that."

* * *

"Kitsuki, honey, did you want something to pass the time?"

Kit's head lightly lifted from where she rested it in her arms, the girl's legs crossed and folded beneath her in her spot at the kitchen table. She was still where Arex left her.

Her drooped ears bounced ever so slightly as she nodded, a sulking expression on her face as Anoel smiled at her from the couch.

She missed Arex.

"Come here then. I'll show you what you can do," Anoel said, beckoning Kit from her chair and drawing her over to the couch with a gesture of the hand.

The short girl stopped just at the back of the spanning seat of cushions, fingers finding their way to clutch at its backrest as she peered down at the woman. Ano had her fingers trailing softly through Seyda's white, spotted tail.

Kit was immediately envious. She wanted to touch it too.

"I know what you're doing and just know that if you're not careful, it _will_ end badly for you," Ly called out from the kitchen, washing the dishes after dinner.

" _Oh_ , _relax_ , it's just a tail rub," Anoel spoke back, Kit's eyes glancing back and forth between the women before settling on Ano again.

" _That's_ why I'm warning you now. Seyda's _very_ picky and has sharp teeth," Ly returned calmly, sparing a moment to glance at the info-broker before shutting the dishwasher and turning the appliance on. "Touch the wrong bit and you bleed."

"I can deal with her if she wakes up annoyed, then. It's my fault anyway," Anoel said, meeting Kit's eyes before smiling. "Here, climb over, I'll get the tail out."

Kit slowly nodded her head, apprehension gleaming in her eyes as she placed her hands more firmly on the back of the couch and pushed her way over. With a little climbing and a rise of her tails, she softly stepped down onto the cushions next to Anoel and gently sat herself down.

As her legs folded beneath her again, tails encircling her lap, she watched Anoel's fingers run up Seyda's tail again and an immediate tingle worked its way through her own fur.

Arex's fingers always carried a heat to them, so she knew what Seyda must've been feeling right now…

"All it takes is a delicate touch," Anoel muttered in a whisper, Kit's ears rising further to pick up the breathless words as she watched deft hands dip beneath the tightly cuddled tail.

Little twitches flicked and curled the tip of it as the white, spotted fur gleamed in the light of the evening sun, flitting in response to the considerate touch. Anoel's fingers worked delicately away at the tight clutches holding the tail close, slipping beneath the confines of the tail and starting to sneak it out of Seyda's possessive arms and legs.

And before Kit could even start taking mental notes, Anoel's light fingers withdrew Seyda's tail, her hand drifting up the length of the appendage in a stroke of heat before scratching lightly beneath Seyda's chin.

Kit caught herself watching in awe as Seyda mewled in her sleep from both sensations, cuddling into the cushions as Ano stole away her only furred appendage.

Kit was impressed… and envious all over again. She wanted that treatment.

"Tada~" Anoel chimed, bringing a smile back to Kit as the girl sat staring in interest, a slight needy pout on her lips. "Funnily enough, the same stuff works on Arex. She just has sensitive ears. You know, if you ever wanted to take _advantage_ of that."

Kit nodded, taking a very serious mental note of that before her eyes widened at a white tail getting draped over her lap.

"Here. I know you like soft things, so play with this one. Just be gentle with it," Anoel said again, and Kit's eyes slowly roamed over the fur laid out over her legs in wonder. Its weight was a little startling, actually.

Her tails were light and fluffy, the fur of it capable of actually fluttering in a slight breeze. But, this one felt dense, and it had a lot more fur and strength in it than her three combined.

She probably trained it that way, and it was probably also a trait of her heritage.

Kit wondered if it could pick her up…

"Go on. I know you've been sulking that Arex left, so this'll take your mind off your partner's absence."

A hot hand found its way between her ears atop her head, and Kit immediately closed her eyes in a silent mewl under the fingers scratching at the bases of her ears.

"Just like you sulk when I'm not in Vale. Seems you two have a lot in common, huh Ano?" Ly commented as she had just finished cleaning the kitchen, padding over to the back of the couch and leaning against it.

"Oh, I sulk a lot more than just that. You know how much I love it when I'm with you," Anoel teased back, her touch scratching further up Kitsuki's ears.

Kit revelled in the heated ear rubs as she let her legs loosely unfold, her socked feet slipping over the edge of the cushions and toward the floor as she leaned back. Her legs weren't long enough to reach the rug, so they just dangled over the side in her growing placidness.

A light touch found its way to her wrist as she relaxed, and she cracked her eyes open to see Ano's other hand moving hers to splay her delicate fingers through Seyda's fur in front of her.

Kit's hands immediately melted into the meditative confines of white softness, putting her own pressure into her gliding movements as they disappeared into the fluff.

"There you go…" Ano's voice spoke out again, and all Kit could do was focus on the bliss radiating through her twitching fox ears and the soft cover of fur between her fingers.

She was in a daze already, and before she knew it, there was a touch to her back gently ushering her forward. A warm palm rubbed between her slender shoulder blades and she found herself curling up. That touch quickly helped her lie down on the cushions before moving to pull her legs back onto the couch.

The hand drew them into a comfortable position as the ear massage continued, and Kit's eyes fluttered closed under the relaxing sensation of heat touching her skin.

That tail she was gently rubbing soon got tucked between her own arms and against her body. She couldn't help but curl up into it, wrapping her arms and legs around it before interlacing her own tails with it.

And that ear rub continued, even as her breathing grew softer and her eyes stayed closed.

The heated touch eventually lulled her to sleep.

* * *

"Okay, if you could open your mouth for me?"

Arex sat on a raised bed in the sterile environment of the hospital, hands down in her lap.

"I just wanna check your internal temperature to get a base reading."

She was facing another version of GHOST, this one decked out in a doctor's uniform as she wore a lab coat, stethoscope hanging around her neck, right on top of a tight, button-up shirt.

Arex's chin fell in another small nod before tipping up slightly, opening her mouth as asked as the doctor placed her index finger on the girl's pink tongue for a couple of seconds.

It didn't really occur to Arex until now that she hadn't been holding any kind of thermometer...

"Well, there's good news and bad news," she said quickly. "The good news is your temperature is completely fine, bad news is, you're a little dehydrated, so I'll get you a drink."

Arex slowly closed her mouth as soon as she could, lowering her chin again before seeing a cold glass of water offered to her.

"You determined that pretty fast for just touching my tongue," Arex commented idly, reaching her own hands out to accept the drink.

"Yeah, each finger has a series of highly accurate sensors on the pads, and considering my core is doing all the hard work, it doesn't take long to determine a result," GHOST explained as she let Arex take a sip. "You'll find that's the case for a lot of things here. Almost everything runs by me."

The phoenix soon nodded in appreciation to what was said, lowering the glass a bit to look back to the doctor model in front of her. "That's actually pretty efficient. Being able to diagnose through touch."

"It is, helps lessen uncomfortable exposure. Speaking of which, I need your finger," the doctor model replied distractedly as she gathered some tissues. "I need to do a quick blood test before you two can move on."

Arex grimaced a little at the prospect of a needle, but she gently raised one of her hands, offering it to be taken as she took a small breath. "S-Sure."

The doctor seemed to sense her uneasy tension and smiled sweetly. "There's no needles, I just need to prick the tip of your finger to take a little sample. You won't feel a thing."

Arex bit her lip a little, but she nodded in response to that.

It took some of that unease away.

GHOST's doctor frame crossed the room and pulled a wheeled chair with her after Arex's confirmation. She adjusted it to sit across from Arex, gently holding onto the girl's extended hand. "This might feel strange, but it's quick and painless, I promise. Feel free to close your eyes."

Despite Arex's curiosity, the girl hesitantly closed her eyes and waited. She felt her hand get raised for a moment, her index finger getting separated a bit from the others before she felt a numbing warmth start to surround the digit.

After a few seconds, a faint prick pushed into the tip of Arex's finger, but the warmth and that numbness kept it from feeling too sharp.

It was starting to get tingly, too.

Arex's brow subtly furrowed delicately on her face as she dipped her chin. That warmth around her finger closing gently around it before she felt a sucking sensation start to draw her blood out.

She couldn't help but suddenly open her eyes to see what was going on, eyes going wide as GHOST's doctor form had her mouth clasped around her fingertip.

Her hands keeping Arex's own raised in place, eyes closed in focus.

Arex's face immediately flushed red and she quickly dipped her chin back down, watching as the warm mouth encasing her finger pulled away.

The pinprick in her pale skin already healing.

"Okay, I got what I need. You okay? Any pain?" GHOST's doctor model asked courteously as her eyebrow quirked.

Arex took a few seconds before looking a little startled, realizing the face looking at her was growing worried.

"N-No."

Her voice came out in a broken and rushed squeak, but it was an answer.

"Okay, that's good. If you're wondering, my 'saliva' is a numbing antiseptic solution," the doctor said with a smile. "That's the cleanest finger you have right now."

Arex lightly curled it back into the rest of her hand, the numbness fading away as she let it fall back into her lap. "O-Okay, that's… good to know…"

The phoenix's voice came out in a shallow whisper, not really knowing what else to say.

"Huh… that's interesting…" the doctor model murmured to herself as she glanced toward a suddenly appearing holographic display next to the bed. "You have the same blood type as Ray... AB negative. That makes things easier."

Arex's drifting attention rose again at that as she looked up, eyes finding the graph her doctor was looking at. It was just a comparison of details between her body's blood and Ray's. "Y-Yeah… I guess it does."

The doctor model turned to look at her. "I don't want to treat you like a labrat, but… If it's okay with you, I'd like to study your anatomy further. Yours in particular is really unique and it's nothing like what we have in our database of other avian faunus."

The phoenix tried not to look too taken aback by that request, even though she definitely was. But she got some purposeful thoughts through her stupor as she nodded with a polite smile, actually intrigued by learning more about herself in that way.

"I'm fine with that. I'm actually curious what you'll find, since I've never really tried to explore it myself in the past."

Not that she was able to, with the tools she had.

"Thank you, we won't do anything today though. It'll have to be at a later date. I've already got a lot of tests in mind."

"Okay," Arex replied with a small nod, kicking her feet a little from where she sat. She was wondering if it was okay to stand yet. "It actually sounds like fun."

"We'll both learn from it, and it'll make fixing you up a _lot_ easier," GHOST replied, smiling at the girl brightly. "You're free to go now."

Arex nodded to that again. It'd be useful for the both of them, and would settle her growing curiosity too about what made up her body.

All she really knew about herself was that her bones were hollow. And that was only due to Ano and her breaking them in the past.

With a quick hop, the phoenix pushed herself back to her feet and looked back to GHOST's doctor form, giving it a small appreciative smile.

"Thanks for the check up," Arex said, speaking lightly.

"Anytime, probably the first you've had in a while," the doctor replied cheerily. "But I guarantee it won't be the last."

Arex blinked silently at the guarantee at the end there, but nodded anyway to it. "I'll look forward to that too, then. And yeah, that… was actually the first check up I've had. I've never really needed one before, and I was always afraid to get one."

Avoiding the careful study of her body had always just been a reflex for her.

The model Arex was being escorted with quickly grabbed her hand. "It's not so bad, it'll keep you up to date on your body's health. We have Aura testing devices too, so we can look into that for you when we get the chance."

The light grasp only reminded Arex of what happened earlier when the doctor took a hold of her slim hand, but she quickly bit that thought back in favor of a small nod. "Y-Yeah… I've just never been a fan of the idea of them before. But this wasn't bad at all, really. I kind of liked it."

It was a little weird though.

"And yeah, if you get the chance, I'd appreciate that," Arex added. Her aura's always been one of her more obscure problems… especially with how directly related it was to her Affinity.

And that only succeeded in keeping her from experimenting with it, let alone with her semblance. She was afraid of seeing how that and her affinity actually interacted, in case one bled into the other.

"Hopefully shedding some insight on it will help you learn to control it better, but that's a question to be answered another day. Ray's getting bored," GHOST's gentle tugging became slightly more assertive as she escorted her to the elevator.

Arex's pace picked up at the little tug as it drew another nod out of her, falling back in line with GHOST's doctor frame to keep up. "I'd like that…"

When the doors ahead of them opened, their pace suddenly slowed down.

"Oh…" GHOST suddenly froze right before they entered the elevator. "We have a… visitor…"

Her face contorted into an expression of concern.

"That's not good… Ray hates visitors… particularly uninvited ones."

Arex's brow furrowed a little as she slowed to a stop inside, fingers distractly tapping against the hand that held them. "Isn't this place… underground? Really, _really_ far underground?"

GHOST nodded, still staring into empty space. "This visitor happens to know exactly where to get in, she's knocking right now."

"Through… steel and stone…?" Arex asked incredulously, turning her gaze slowly to GHOST's distracted face.

"Yeah…" GHOST muttered. "That's the problem."

It honestly sounded like the real problem was the fact this visitor could just pop up whenever she wanted. "Y-You can go if you need to focus there. I can just wait around somewhere."

"You keep forgetting I have multiple bodies. I'm sending one up now, to see what she wants. In the meantime, we should probably go to the seventh level," GHOST said as her gaze returned to Arex. "The other levels aren't anything too special. It's just vehicle storage and the workshop, and the current forge."

The word 'forge' caught Arex's attention, but she still couldn't see past the look of concern on GHOST's face. It looked like things weren't going well upstairs.

"I can show you around those levels later on, if you're still around, or maybe at another time completely. But for now, I think it's about time I showed you the best level by far," GHOST grinned at Arex, revealing a set of perfectly straight, realistic looking teeth.

Arex smiled back, hoping GHOST wasn't covering for something that was happening up above. "Sounds good, I'd like to see them later. Especially the forge. But I'm interested in seeing what's on level 7… especially with what Ray said about it."

"Level 7 it is then," GHOST smiled as she pushed the button, the sliding doors closing before the elevator began its descent.

"This… won't go abnormally fast to get down a couple levels, would it?" Arex asked cautiously, staring warily down at her feet as the elevator started to move.

They'd only gone down one level at a time so far. She didn't know how it dealt with several at a time.

"It can go faster, but given what happened the first time, if you'd not like to lose your footing again, you'll just have to wait a little longer. We've got a good 4 kilometers to go," GHOST said, quirking a brow. "I can always hold you down though."

"O-Okay, but it _can_ go that fast," Arex noted, smiling a little in thanks as she brought her gaze back up to GHOST. "I won't lie, though, I kind of like the weightless feeling of it. It was just startling at first."

"Then let's go faster," GHOST said as her grin widened, the AI's hair already starting to float freely as the elevator quickly accelerated.

Arex's grip on GHOST's hand suddenly grew tighter as she felt her frame start to lose any weight it had with the floor. The phoenix's eyes immediately gazed back down to watch the elevator floor fall away again, her body slowly floating off the balls of her feet.

She couldn't help it. She loved this feeling.

Free falling.

"Having fun?" GHOST raised her voice as the rushing of air beneath the elevator became increasingly louder as it continued accelerating.

Arex happily nodded to that, smile widening as she tugged slightly on GHOST's hand to pull herself back down, only to start floating up again.

"Have you ever considered building a chamber designed to have this effect?" Arex couldn't help but ask, feeling a little excited at the idea.

They had the space for it.

GHOST shook her head, her voice raising in volume to become audible over the updraft of wind. "No, but you could always try jumping from the top of the cave system."

"Oh, can I do that?" Arex asked in return, dropping her gaze back to GHOST in its growing excitement.

"So long as you don't hit anything on the way down, I'm sure you'll be okay to try it."

Arex's smile grew at that.

The elevator had began to slow down now, nearing the seventh level. So Arex was a little disappointed when she found herself getting grounded again.

"I would tell you to prepare yourself… but you're not ready for this."

The AI's gaze left Arex's confused one and focused on the elevator doors as the compartment smoothly glided down to a halt.

When the doors opened, they were met with a long, dimly lit corridor, blinking lights running intermittently on the floor as it led to a large bulkhead.

Above the bulkhead, there was a large, backlit sign.

'Central Processing'.

"After you," GHOST instructed, gesturing toward the bulkhead door.

Arex glanced back at the AI. After staring down the corridor for so long, her once loose grip on the girl's hand tightened again as she realized where they were.

"This is… your core… isn't it…?" Arex asked softly.

GHOST's smile widened further as they approached the heavy metal door, hydraulic whirring soon resonating throughout the structure before it slowly opened.

Arex just held her breath, turning her eyes forward again as her eyes tried to peer through the widening slit before it could open completely.

She was about to see GHOST's Central Processing unit…

Her heart.

It was… _huge…_ bigger than the phoenix thought it would be, and way bigger than any of the levels they'd been on before.

The room they were greeted to only appeared to be an observation deck, but Arex's eyes were focused solely on what pulsed at its center in the distance through the thick glass.

A giant, metallic sphere laid at the epicenter of the core's overall structure, massive cables and pipes all symmetrically running to and from the middle of the wide area as a large blue light illuminated the rest of the huge, wide-open space.

Electrical energy surged across uncovered coils in plasmatic rings, arcing toward the core itself with a slow, but mesmerising singing.

No wonder why GHOST was so powerful…

Especially if _this_ was the size of her processing unit.

"You're _late_ ," a deep, monotonous voice called out from inside the observation deck. "I thought you'd be here half an hour ago."

Arex was still watching the energy course through the cables connecting to GHOST's heart, too drawn in to feel bad about being late at all.

Not that she knew she was supposed to be here any earlier.

GHOST just wanted to stop and suck on her finger- or, medically check her over.

"Sorry about that, we were preoccupied with something," GHOST replied, turning her gaze to the boy sitting down in the swivel chair below them, sneakers crossed and resting on a desk.

"I guess it doesn't matter," Ray muttered, adjusting himself on the swivel chair he sat in. "Enjoying the view, Arex?"

The phoenix found herself numbly nodding in response to that, but it was more of a reflex than anything else.

"Told you this would be your favorite level."

"Y-Yeah…" Arex muttered back, barely audible over the whirring of energy. She was mesmerized, so GHOST had to give her some kind of direction to actually start moving.

The AI led Arex down a catwalk before letting her walk down a set of steps, the pathway leading to the glass floor and wall of the observation deck.

"Three years it took to research and build. Pretty impressive compared to those scumbag idiot savants at Atlas," Ray commented idly as he sipped a glass of orange juice. "I'm still not satisfied though, we could go bigger."

Arex glanced up at the enormous metallic core as Ray said that, watching it pulse and hum for a few moments in idle thought. "It's already really big… But I wouldn't mind seeing GHOST's heart get bigger over time."

Ray hummed to himself thoughtfully. "You're right. Maybe I could build a second one. I'm sure I can source 25 billion lien to fund it again."

Arex slowly let out a pent up breath as he spoke, eyes never leaving the glow of the core. "Can I be a part of that?"

"Sure, if you can withstand the surge. There's a reason we're up _here_ and not down _there._ And it's got nothing to do with the view."

"I can withstand it," Arex promised, but all she really knew was that she was willing to withstand whatever it took to help on a project like this.

Especially if it was for GHOST.

"You can withstand enough voltage to kill a thousand men?" Ray asked amusedly. "Or is this you finally biting the bullet and caving?"

Arex winced at how much voltage that was, but she offered a sure smile in response to it. "Is it… really alright if I joined Sentinel?"

She just… wanted that final confirmation. Just to make sure.

"11 million lien, access to the most powerful Artificial Intelligence on the planet, and a private tour of Sentinel's headquarters wasn't enough of a hint for you?" Ray asked, eyeing the girl critically.

Arex's smile turned sheepish as she lightly grasped her arm, turning her gaze way. "No, I guess not…"

She brought her gaze back to the window beyond the desk surrounding them, finding the core through it again as she took a deep breath.

"But I'd like to join, if you'd let me."

A deep breath left Ray's mouth as he stood from his chair. " _Finally…_ "

He looked to GHOST critically for a moment before rolling his eyes.

" _Go on then._ "

Arex was quickly jostled from her reverie as a pair of slim but strong arms wrapped around her body, drawing a startled squeak from her throat. A weight on her shoulder settled as the AI's head nestled there.

"You are, by far, the most _stubborn_ recruit I've tried to take on board, you know that, right?" Ray asked as he crossed the observation deck behind them.

The phoenix offered an awkward chuckle at that as she reached up, resting her hand on one of GHOST's encompassing arms with a small smile. "I'm… not very good with attention, if you haven't noticed. Sorry I took so long."

"More like you're completely oblivious to your surroundings..."

GHOST took her head away from Arex's shoulder to turn and face Ray. "I… may have completely forgotten to mention to you that we… have a visitor?"

A sudden tense silence filled the room as Ray stared back at the AI wordlessly.

"You _forgot_ to mention this?" he asked skeptically. "You're an _AI_ , you don't forget _anything._ "

"I was preoccupied…"

"Preoccupied," Ray echoed as he blinked in response.

The AI hesitantly nodded her head before her grip on Arex loosened. "If it's any consolation, I can escort them down here now, since she says she wants to speak with you."

"So what? I'm supposed to wait for an uninvited trespasser?" Ray countered, raising his arms and shaking his head in disbelief.

"There's no need to wait. I'm already here."

Arex was the only one to jump a little at the sudden appearance of someone in her peripherals, a woman's new voice speaking out into the observation room.

She had what looked to be a white yukata with black edges, which was already a stark contrast to the dark, dimly lit room around her.

And when Arex glanced at her, she immediately noticed three things. White hair, fox ears, and nine tails…

She was a kitsune.

The woman's attire contained her refined, voluptuous figure, something Arex suddenly felt a little put off to even keep looking at as she traced the elegant black flame patterns adorning the ends of the garment and ends of its sleeves.

Around her waist was a black sash keeping her yukata together, where its ends dangled off towards the left side of her waist. Her footwear was a simple pair of what looked to be black tabi socks and silvery zori sandals.

Arex having only known what they _actually_ were due to researching the attire for a cultural festival held in Vale one night.

She never got around to attending, though.

The woman in question had elegant flowing white hair that reached her waist, longer than what Arex was expecting, and crimson red eyes that gave off an illustrious, almost seductive shine to them.

The two ears Arex noticed earlier seemed to flick idly as her tails stood up behind her proudly.

She looked like she could've been Inuba's older sister, just much more mature in figure and age.

As they stood there, though, Arex suddenly felt… very underdressed.

Considering she was just standing in her thin olive light sweater and black sweatpants, shuffling in her sneakers as she stared at the woman before them.

"Who the _fuck_ are you?" Ray's face contorted in anger before his gaze snapped to GHOST. "You let a fucking _kitsune_ in here? Are you _malfunctioning?_ "

Arex jumped again at the _other_ unexpected words and tone, switching her gaze back and forth between the two before realizing she should probably stay out of this. If she could.

"Now now, don't be so upset with the poor girl. I did sense your presence in the area and decided to come greet you myself, considering you weren't present last time," she spoke in a calming, soothe voice.

"Oh yeah, that's _wonderful_. You just _decided_ to walk in here, did you?" Ray retaliated aggressively. "Not sure if you haven't noticed, but this place isn't exactly a fucking public park."

"Yes, I realized as much with all these… strange machines lying about. But considering the young lady and I are fast friends by now, I have been planning activities for us. After all, what are we to do here in the area by our lonesome selves? I believe the saying goes that with two people involved, there's much more fun to be had!"

Arex… only really heard that from Anoel. But she had a feeling this woman wasn't talking about Anoel's version of 'fun'.

Ray dropped his head into his hand as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "This is the last thing I needed today… an encounter with _two of them._ "

With a deep breath, he returned his gaze back to the stranger. Arex actually tensed up when it passed over her for a brief second, something that brought her to step a little back and off to the side.

"From what I understand, you _weasled_ your way in here by forcing her into a position that left her no choice but to let you in. Talking some shit about checking it out for 'suspicious activities'. That's not 'making friends', that's the definition of _blackmail._ "

"Now now, no such thing was done. To be fair, she did seem a bit… peculiar. It wasn't the first time I've seen those of her kind, and just to be safe, I followed her here to ascertain the matter for myself. After all, my family hasn't survived throughout the millennia simply by grace and good standing."

"Yeah, well sorry to burst your little self-absorbed bubble there, _your majesty._ But who exactly gave you the authority to stalk my AI, break into our home, and melt my fucking turret?" Ray was spitting sarcasm at this point, clearly less than pleased with the situation. "Doesn't matter if she looks odd to you, it's not your place to do as you damn well please."

"To be fair, it pointed at me rather quickly. Reflexive action really. My apologies for destroying your machine," she said, bowing briefly.

"It _pointed at you_ because you were _breaking in_ ," Ray enunciated slowly, condescendingly. "Did you not stop to think that this place isn't the kind of facility you just _walk_ into? What? Do you break into maximum security prisons to say hello to the inmates too?"

"Ah, I did something similar in my youth quite a few years ago."

Youth? Arex grimaced again as she realized she was probably wrong earlier. How old was she? She looked like she was in her twenties… or supposed to be.

"It was a wonderful night… But to answer your first non-sarcastic question, for all I knew, you could have very well been some mad doctor planning unfathomable destruction and diabolical schemes. As they say, better safe than sorry."

Ray let out a growl as he threw his arms in the air. "It's like speaking to a brick wall with you idiots, isn't it?"

He quickly returned his venomous gaze toward the woman.

"Clearly your mouth is faster than your brain, so I'll break this down _slowly_ for you to understand. Your _nonsensical suspicions_ don't justify _breaking and entering."_

"They can when under suspicion of potentially dangerous situations without prior knowledge to say otherwise. Besides, that was one instance. I knocked this time, didn't I?"

"Oh yeah, you break into my home and destroy my stuff, but it's _okay_ because you said _sorry_!" Ray was kind of rubbing it in now. "You're a fucking moron. Get out of my Vault."

"Now now, there's no need to be overly angry. If it helps, I'll compensate you for the single machine I destroyed the next time I enter Vale. And look, I brought potato and beef stew for everyone!"

A large red stew pot suddenly appeared steaming in her hand.

"I made it myself, so it should be very appealing to your senses."

It wasn't until then that Arex realized they'd left without eating much from dinner, so she was actually pretty hungry...

"Well _congratulations,_ you boiled meat and vegetables in water, still doesn't mean I want you here. You and your piece of shit family can go fuck yourselves. And tell that asshole Dante to do the same."

The stew actually looked and smelled really good.

"My, you're energetic. Is he always so full of energy?" The woman asked, looking to GHOST.

"Don't involve me. I'm just a neutral third party…" The AI returned, raising her hands defensively.

Can… can GHOST speak for Arex too on that part?

"And now that I mention it, so is she," GHOST's thumb pointed toward the phoenix standing beside her, chasing a relieved but tight breath out of Arex's lungs.

The kitsune turned to look at Arex upon that gesture though and slowly approached, stopping a few feet short of her before she looked around her. Examining her.

Arex's body immediately went rigid under the careful gaze.

"Now this is interesting… I wasn't aware of other yōkai present… Would you perhaps be a crow tengu of sorts?"

Arex was almost afraid to say anything in fear of nothing coming out but a quiet squeak, but she swallowed that urge down and just paled instead. "I-I… don't know what that is..."

"Hmmm… You have wings, but it seems as though you may not be a yōkai… It looks as though I've much to learn."

"Yeah… like how to respect others' privacy…" Ray commented to himself.

Arex's eyes went a little wide before her body felt stiff all over again, wanting to lock up under the woman's perspective attention.

S-She could… see her wings?

"Y-You can see them?" Arex asked softly, voice meek.

"But of course I can sweet child. My eyes see quite much. Those that are, what lies beneath, so forth and so on. They're also excellent in identifying imposters and non-human entities."

Ray crossed the room to put himself between Arex and the woman while the poor phoenix shrunk in discomfort. "But _clearly_ they're not capable of seeing that she's _uncomfortable."_

"Oh, I mean you no harm, young Arex. My daughter speaks highly of you from what little interaction she's had with you. In fact, she seemed interested in attempting to know you better to become friends."

S-So, she was Inuba's mom… then…

Arex didn't really know if that made her feel better or not.

"S-She's nice, but I didn't know she wanted to," Arex offered back, finally managing to glance up to the woman's face, but she reflexively glanced to her fox ears as well.

"Would you like to touch them? They're very soft if I do say so myself."

"Would you like to get the hell out of here?" Ray cut in, Arex's response dying behind her closing lips. "Your welcome is more than overstayed."

"Only if you try my stew, young Chroma. The rest of you as well. I made quite enough for everyone here. Afterwards, should I seek to socialize with young Ghost from here on, I will ask her to come to the manor instead. If you would allow it, of course."

"She doesn't need to eat. But given the fact that unlike Dante, you're capable of reason, sure. She can see you if she wants to," Ray replied evenly.

"Wonderful!" the woman said with excitement in her tone. "But permit me to ask, has young Dante done something to provoke you? I'd be a little disappointed if he started misbehaving after I asked him to be on his best behavior."

"Do not get me fucking started. Both him and your daughter are very quickly putting themselves on my shitlist. But you're _also_ a part of the same damn cluster so you can get fucked as well," Ray replied harshly as he spun on his heel and walked toward the exit. "Arex, you and GHOST do whatever you were planning. I'll catch up with you later."

"Ah, leaving so soon? I suppose you are a busy young man… We'll leave some stew for you as well, but I can't make any promises really. It really is quite that good!"

Ray regarded her with a neutral gaze, his eyes briefly flicking to Arex and GHOST for a moment before he silently inhaled.

" _Sure..._ "

"Wonderful!"

He was pissed.

Arex's eyes were low and unsure as Ray walked off, disappearing down the dim corridor up the stairs as the phoenix felt the attention shift back to them.

At least GHOST was with her… even though the AI probably wasn't going to have any of the stew.

Which kinda just left Arex there to try it.

Alone.

"I-I take it we should probably eat somewhere that _isn't_ coursing with energy?" Arex asked softly, looking to GHOST before turning back to the woman in front of them.

"Unless there's a kitchen or dining hall present, we can escape to the manor briefly for recourse," the woman offered.

"I'd prefer that you didn't eat here, spilling it on any of these consoles would kill me…" GHOST replied, somewhat uncomfortably as she kicked the floor. "There's a dining table on level 2, though."

"That will do then. Come now younglings, we've to celebrate our new acquaintance!"

Arex… wasn't sure how she felt about the woman's enthusiasm, and she still didn't even know her name yet.

She was afraid to ask.

Uncomfortable eyes finally turned to GHOST before Arex hesitantly held out her hand at her side, hoping the AI would just take it without question.

Like they'd been doing for the tour.

She… kind of needed it right now.

GHOST's hand slipped into Arex's and grasped it tightly, squeezing it a little before the AI smiled.

The phoenix returned it for a brief second, but it fell when the AI started tugging her forward and up the stairs to follow the woman with the stew.

It smelled promising, at least.

"You… asked if I was a crow tengu because I had wings," Arex spoke quietly after GHOST caught them up, her hand tightly squeezing the AI's grip. "Have you never seen avian faunus before?"

"Not coming here I haven't, no. You could say we've… lived in a secluded manner. We're still learning of the alternate species that are identified as Faunus. The variety of beings I know of that possess wings however are either crow, dragon, or devil. Yet yours are different. They seem to radiate with a powerful, yet gentle warmth. Different than a crow tengu really."

"I… honestly thought you were a faunus, too. I guess I was mistaken," Arex replied, the three of them approaching a closed set of elevator doors ahead of them.

She liked the sound of how the woman described her, though. She just… wished she knew how to _always_ keep it gentle.

She didn't care if it was powerful.

"I honestly wouldn't say you're mistaken, really. Back home, others only recently discovered the existence of our people. Yōkai I mean. And they had a very positive reaction. Considering we're here now, it's more… natural, since as far as we've learned, Faunus have been a common people present. So in truth, it would be accurate to say that I am a Faunus."

Arex couldn't help but note the 'back home' the woman talked about, making it sound like she didn't originate from here. From Remnant.

But, with her being a yōkai, it made more sense that she came from somewhere else than was born of Remnant descent.

Which only raised Arex's curiosity about her partner. Kit was born here… wasn't she?

Arex's gaze soon drifted away though, envious of how people seemed to react to the woman's kind. "Oh, well, at least it was positive…" she trailed off softly.

If only it was the same here.

"From what I've understood, Faunus kind has had some difficulty concerning interactions with humans."

"Yeah… you could say that," Arex replied, not wanting to get into that part of her life.

"While it is troubling, I am glad to see there are humans sensible enough to see past such terribly misguided fears. What is there to fear really?"

"Superstition has occurred regarding faunus for hundreds, maybe thousands of years," GHOST commented, finally involving herself in the conversation. "No one really knows what caused the stigma between the two races, but it's always been there."

"Then we yōkai and Faunus are much alike in that regard. While we did interact a great deal with humans within previous millennia, with recent centuries, we simply faded into legends and myths. And the tales they spoke of our kind…" she said with a giggle. "Most were very humorous. Others, not so much. But when we revealed ourselves to them again centuries later, instead of fear, they welcomed us with intrigue. A desire to know and understand us more. I certainly hope humanity can do the same here as well."

"So do we, but we have our methods of trying to dissuade discrimination," GHOST spoke informatively. "Even if they're universally frowned upon."

Arex just walked quietly beside GHOST as the AI spoke, hoping to keep out of this one. She was a fan of them trying to find a way _to_ dissuade discrimination, but it was never fun to know so much was already taken at the brunt of it.

She _hid_ her wings for that very reason, among the simple escape of keeping her real race hidden.

"Perhaps we Faunus require our moment of opportunity. Our chance to finally prove once and for all that we're very much alike. Each of us share many similar woes and fears. And each of us share many similar joys and happiness. Should a chance ever arrive, I'm certain such negative outlooks will fade away."

Arex liked the optimism, but she knew they were far, far away from ever achieving that. The world was at peace, but inner-species turmoil never ended.

And Arex had a feeling it wouldn't end unless another war broke out.

One that brought out a common enemy, instead of just each other.

"Young Arex?" the woman asked. "You've been silent for some time now. Come, tell us more about yourself."

Oh… guess she couldn't avoid the conversation forever.

The phoenix quietly mulled over what she wanted to say, eyes turning back to the woman's gaze. But she just settled on changing the topic as quickly as possible.

"There isn't much to say, really," Arex replied, the three of them coming to a stop as the elevator worked its way back to their level. "But… I guess I'm not really like other faunus. Not in the normal sense."

That simple fact was proven when Arex's race was hunted to near extinction.

'Near', considering she didn't know if there were any left at all… outside she and her sister.

"Mmmm… You must tell me more when we settle down for lunch. I'm quite interested in knowing more about you now."

The elevator seemed to punctuate her sentence with a soft ding, doors sliding to open the way into the empty compartment.

Arex instinctively followed the woman inside with GHOST keeping close to her arm, the phoenix keeping her gaze in places away from the woman ahead of them.

"You wouldn't be the first," Arex replied, turning to see the doors close behind them. "You never mentioned your name yet. All I know is that you're Inuba's mom."

Which was kind of hard to believe, considering how well age had seemed to treat the woman.

"Ah! I'm terribly sorry for my lack of manners. I was too caught up in making a new acquaintance I forgot to introduce myself."

She shifted the red pot to one hand briefly, clearing her throat before she spoke.

"My name is Kareina Kitsukami. Very pleased to make your acquaintance at last."

* * *

 ***internally and externally stressed* I need to work on Flame...**

 **As for the chapter, it was more on the Vault, more reinforcement to the positive relationship GHOST and Arex share, a display of how much Ray _hates_ Kitsune, and another omake!**

 ***glances future chapters* Needs more Niro...**

 **For now,** _ **Favorite**_ **and** _ **Follow**_ **.**

 **I look forward to seeing** _ **REVIEWS**_ **for this. You'll be introduced to a LOT of concepts of mine. Feel free to give me your thoughts.**

 **Cya XP**

* * *

 **Omake:** _by Xera Stark_

* * *

"Open your mouth."

Arex squirmed, desperation and discomfort writhing on her face and through her entire body as she tightly clasped her legs around her sandwiched hands.

"W-Why?"

"So I can take your temperature."

Her shying gaze turned to see Niro hold up a covered white thermometer, her tongue pushing at her cheeks as she kept her lips tightly clasped together.

She didn't want to. Nobody would want to.

He wasn't even being nice about it…

"There are other places I can stick this," Niro muttered distractedly, and Arex's eyes shot wide as she watched him carefully and casually remove the encasement around the medical device.

"O-Okay! F-Fine…" Arex's voice quivered in the air as her body shook from nerves alone, her lower lip and jaw quivering as she slowly parted her lips.

Her pink tongue practically trembled from the touch of the stale air as Niro nodded to himself, lightly sticking the thermometer into the girl's mouth to dip beneath her tongue.

"Hold it there for thirty seconds. Should get an accurate reading," he muttered again, her wracked mind thankful that he had _that_ much decency in him to keep his voice low. "Don't make me have to do it again."

Her mouth snapped shut and she shook her head quickly, lips sealing around the plastic device as her eyes turned down to watch its end flick back and forth from her movements.

"You have a small mouth…"

Arex choked on a hum at his idle comment as her eyes snapped back to him, but he wasn't looking at her. Back to looking at a large scroll tablet.

He was playing a game on it.

She, on the other hand, sat absolutely still, petrified to move now and mess up the reading.

And _god_ did those thirty seconds _crawl_ by. She was in agony by the time it beeped.

She was quivering again as he reached over and lightly pulled the thermometer out, her lips parting just slightly to get the uncomfortable thing out from beneath her tongue.

It was sensitive like that.

"Okay. Blood's next."

Arex's entire body locked up as her back stiffened, her mouth falling open in a breathless stutter with no words even voiced.

 _O-Oh god no…_

The smallest of needles lifted into view and Arex's skin ran cold, his pale finger flicking at the vial attached to the back of the sharp device before his green eyes turned to her.

 _N-No… no no no no no-_

She tried to scurry back on the medical bed, hands planting clumsily and desperately into the matted surface as she pushed and managed to get her legs up.

But a hand pressed down onto her shoulder as soon as she did, locking her against its cold surface.

"It won't hurt. I promise."

Like she'd believe that?! A whimper left her throat as she squeezed her eyes closed, her entire body shaking all over again as the pressure grew in the hand he was using to hold her down.

Seconds ticked by, and she was going _mad_ with nerves. Her skin had never felt colder than it did now, and her mind was rushing up a storm as her dangling feet trembled and her fingers squeezed tight.

But that pressure on her shoulder left her, nothing holding her down anymore as the air she'd been breathing chilled.

H-He walked away…?

Her eyes cracked open just enough to see an empty space above her, and when she leaned up, she saw him setting down a partially filled vial of blood back onto the tray.

H-Her blood? He… took some already…?

She didn't even feel it…

"Told you." His voice was even, but somehow, her worried eyes caught sight of a look of mild concern on his face.

Before it vanished back to neutrality.

Like it always did.

"Okay. Time for a physical."

 _W-WHAT?!_

"Strip."

Arex fell back onto the table.

Then curled up into the smallest ball she could muster.


	48. Recruit

Rogue Huntsman

Recruit

«»

GHOST took them to a dining area, adjacent to the open kitchen separated by a long, bar countertop. The kitchen, from what Arex could see, was mostly white. Everything had that clean, gleaming design to it. Simplistic in a modern way, and with technical marvels.

She couldn't see all of it from over the countertop and where it resided behind its half wall. Its lights were dim in the background too, taking the color away from most of the utilities Arex glimpsed.

And Arex _desperately_ wanted to see _more_ of it. She needed to. She wanted to. She was a kitchen addict because she found comfort in places like that.

It was where she spent most of her younger years, especially in her bakery. The main floor was just that. A big kitchen with a foyer for customers, and just a forge in the back.

So, she felt a little weird staring longingly at the kitchen over the bar as she sat down at one of the wooden tables, positioning herself comfortably in the padded chair.

Her eyes finally worked their way back to the other two here in the dining room, her fingers still interlaced with GHOST's as the AI took a seat to her immediate right.

And Kareina stood just at the large table's edge, placing down one of the kitchen towels handed to her and resting the hot pot on top.

"I can bring a pair of bowls in for you, assuming you haven't brought your own," GHOST suggested, her gray eyes turning to face Kareina.

"Oh, there's no need," she spoke, snapping her fingers. Wisps of white Aura flowed from her fingertip to form three separate bowls and spoons. "There we go!"

She could… make matter too? Outside of just storing and transporting a pot of stew…? Or were the bowls just stored the same way?

Arex lightly plucked one of the spoons up and slid a bowl toward herself, a little surprised to feel actual solid weight in them.

"That works, I guess," Arex spoke softly, tipping her bowl back and forth as she scanned it with her eyes. It looked just like any other glass bowl, just with entwining ornate black motifs decorating its exterior.

"Mrs. Kitsukami, I can't actually eat this stew," GHOST spoke politely as she sat down. "I don't have any organs to digest it."

"Oh? Maybe a spoonful then?"

The AI offered an apologetic smile as she shook her head. "Not even that, I'm afraid. I'm not human. I won't even be able to taste it either, unfortunately."

"Ah, how unfortunate… I assumed you had such a function based off of young Dante's machine friend, Darwin. Sweet lad he is."

"She'd have to be able to break it down somehow, if she did," Arex commented idly, looking back and forth between the two before glancing to the stew.

"The only thing I can consume is water, for the synthetic skin, but solids would destroy the internals of this body," GHOST explained calmly. "If it's any consolation though, the stew looks well-made."

"And smells good," Arex added, more to herself than the others, though. Her stomach lightly growled at her realization, and that only reminded her how light her dinner was before coming here.

She was afraid it wouldn't sit well due to her nerves about coming to the Vault. But now that she was inside, she felt comfortable enough to actually eat something filling.

"Well, help yourself then, sweet Arex," Kareina said, filling up a bowl and sliding it to her. "I hope you'll find the taste quite delectable."

Arex exchanged her empty bowl for the full one and lightly took in some of the scent wafting up from the stew steaming inside it, her tongue already watering from the thought of how savory it must've been.

She was still nervous about just talking with her, but she was brave enough to finally slip her hand out of GHOST's now. If only to make eating easier.

"How… hot is it?" Arex asked quietly, dipping her spoon in to stir the food around a little, a puff of steam wafting up from where her spoon touched. "I'm just asking because I don't want to be… rude, if I don't eat it right away. I'm bad with heat."

"Oh? Well that's fairly strange… With your element being flame I would have assumed heat would be of no consequence to you."

Arex grimaced as Kareina's face turned toward her again, and she couldn't help but shy away from it with a look of mild shame. "Yeah… you'd think."

It was always something she was envious of. Since Anoel didn't have the problem.

"Well, it's not entirely unnatural… I have known dragons that did not fare so well with heat."

Arex's gaze slowly drew back up as she rested her hands in her lap, trying to discreetly let her food cool off. "Dragons?"

The forger's gaze fell on GHOST's for a moment, but she quickly realized her databases probably didn't have them either, if they didn't have phoenix heritage.

"Ah yes… Perhaps since I am here, I should start referring to some as Faunus… Dragon Faunus sweet child. But of course, actual dragons are still quite difficult to hold a conversation with…"

"Okay…" Arex didn't know how to make sense of that. She didn't even know dragons existed on Remnant, if that's what she was referring to. "With Faunus, it makes sense. Since I'm… me, anyway."

She was a mythical creature herself, she figured. But she never saw herself as 'mythical' in the magical sense. Just… rare.

"It makes sense for other types to be out there too. Like Kitsune," Arex said, her eyes finding their way back to Kareina's tails for a moment, her mind immediately drifting off to Kit's own.

They looked… similar, but that may have been just a trait Kitsune shared.

"Indeed. In our society where we came from Kitsune ranged from single tails to nine, with nine being the highest degree of power. Some are born with one tail, others five, and very few with nine. Even so, there is a chance to surpass their current level to gain an additional tail," she explained.

Tails… depicted power? Arex's gaze defaulted to GHOST again, just for the moment, as her mind jumped back to Kit. Her partner only had the three, but the last she checked, she was also pretty sure Kitsuki's lineage had nothing to do with where Kareina was from.

All of… _this_ was so… different. Seeing this woman perform these kinds of things. It was a kind of magic Arex had no idea even existed.

"You're saying that a kitsune can develop more tails the more powerful they get?" Arex asked for clarity, her eyes tracking back to the kitsune in front of her.

"Why yes indeed!" Kareina spoke as her ears perked up happily. "Though, power isn't the only determinant for gaining another tail. There are many other factors involved. Emotional state can also be a factor."

Arex's tongue poked the inside of her cheek as she tried to mull over the facts, trying to figure out if Kitsuki fell into this category or not. She was… leaning toward not. Because she was pretty sure Kit was born with three tails, and it's looked like they've stayed like that.

"It's good to know, I guess," Arex offered, her voice sounding soft again as she returned her attention to her stew. Maybe she could eat a little this time.

She took back up her spoon and lightly lifted a small portion up, blowing on it for a few seconds to make the lingering steam go away.

Thankfully, it wasn't hot enough to burn her. She managed it, but it was still fairly hot.

And unsurprisingly… it tasted as good as it smelled.

"I have a question," a light voice from Arex's right stated collectively. "Why do the tails always come in _odd_ numbers? As opposed to even ones."

Arex lightly smiled at that as she finished her first bite. She couldn't imagine seeing Kit with two or four tails, now that she thought about it. But GHOST may have taken that a little too literally.

"I think they can have any number between one and nine," Arex lightly spoke, a tiny puff of heat leaving her lips from the stew. It was good. Really… good.

GHOST turned to her with a pensive stare. "I see… Interesting. And what threshold of power constitutes an additional tail?"

"Usually by surpassing a previous tier of power. But again, having raw power doesn't necessarily allow one to advance and gain another tail. State of mind plays in the equation, emotions, etc. In fact, my daughter unlocked her ninth tail when in an heightened emotional state."

Arex lightly prodded at her cheek again. That meant… Kit wasn't entirely ruled out, then. If she was stuck in an emotional state all her life without being able to move on.

The AI nodded in understanding. "So… they'd have to be mentally and emotionally stable before they advance?"

"No. They can be in an angered state if the event happening at the time induces strong, emotional reactions. Its other factors come into play besides power."

GHOST's eye momentarily flashed green as she nodded. The AI crossing one leg over the other as she let her hands rest in her lap. "Does this progression only come when the kitsune in question pursues it? By training? Or can it happen naturally?"

"Either or really. For those of us 'born' with nine tails, we unlock our tails one by one as we progress and grow. Other kitsune born with lesser tails have a chance to evolve and gain another tail or two. For instance, a kitsune with three tails can potentially gain nine in the future."

"But… not all, right?" Arex asked, a few bites into her stew, but just idly stirring her food now. "Especially if they've had trouble emotionally?"

"Some may never gain another tail. Others may stop evolving after gaining a certain amount. One aspect of evolution doesn't completely impede or halt one's progression."

Some may never develop, huh…?

"Even if they have the potential to gain another tail? Is it possible to keep that locked away from them?" Arex voiced again, her tone staying soft as she lifted another bite of her stew just over her bowl.

Could someone… keep a kitsune's power capped, just like that? By controlling their emotions?

"The best one can ever hope for is to introduce a physical seal. Even then, it wouldn't last for an extended period of time. It's one of the reasons monks did not particularly enjoy our kind back in older times. We were just that uncontrollable," she said with a shrug.

If that's the case… then maybe Kit just… didn't _want_ to get stronger. Or she didn't fall under this category of kitsune at all, even slightly.

Arex didn't have anything else she wanted to add to that, so she slipped the bite she'd been staring at into her mouth to slowly finish off.

"Is there mayhaps an issue with your partner, sweet Arex? Is that why you have been asking so much about our kind?"

The girl's delicate brow knit together as she chewed, her eyes immediately falling away from the question at hand.

"I was just curious," she muttered after swallowing.

"Now now, no need to be shy. Inuba has told me much of your adorable counterpart. Share, if it would please you."

But… she couldn't help but be shy about this, and avoidant. "I'm just… worried about her, is all."

She hoped that admission was enough.

"It is only natural to be worried about… Oh…" Kareina paused, raising a hand to her mouth to hide a brief flash of a smile that soon crossed her lips. "I see I see… You must worry on a daily basis then."

Arex grimaced again at seeing the look Kareina gave her, confused. "I do… but I don't see why that's important."

"Look look ms. Ghost," the kitsune started as she leaned toward the phoenix, hand still covering her mouth. "See how flustered she becomes when mentioning her partner?"

 _O-oh… so that's what she meant._

Arex's reserved grumble sounded more like a whimper as she shrunk a little under the announcement, her face immediately reddenning.

GHOST nodded and turned to Arex, offering the girl a smile before returning her neutral gray eyes back to Kareina.

Arex was glad GHOST didn't make a big deal of it. She was probably used to it, by now.

"Can we not talk about that?" Arex muttered, half tempted to just shovel a small portion of stew into her mouth to give her an excuse not to respond.

GHOST suddenly looked a little startled, staring distantly at the far wall before muttering to herself. "Oh, a new record…"

After a couple of seconds of staring at the wall, her eyes and face relaxed before returning her focus back to the table and its occupants.

"Ray?" Arex asked, her eyes taking in GHOST's weird side-track.

The AI just hummed affirmatively in response.

Ray was distracting himself, it seemed. And making sure his arm worked.

"Oh? Is he practicing for a task? Learning something new mayhaps?"

"No, he's making sure his arm's fully functional still after I patched him up," GHOST returned coolly. "He also doesn't want to be here right now."

"Understandably." Kareina nodded. "Did he once cross paths with a kitsune? Is that perhaps why he seems somewhat hostile towards me?"

The AI reluctantly nodded as she gave Kareina an apologetic look. "He doesn't like your kind for a reason I'm not at liberty to discuss. In fact, he doesn't get along with most people, but he has a particular grudge against kitsune."

"Now that I think of it, my daughter has mentioned a rather unbearable ruffian as of late… Now I know who," she eagerly stated. "Though I suppose young Dante wasn't much different when he was of a younger age."

"Oh… Ray _really_ doesn't like the extraterrestrial…" GHOST murmured.

"My 'leader' doesn't either," Arex added. "I've never asked why."

"How strange… Has he been misbehaving? I thought I told him to behave himself and avoid getting into trouble… Oooo, the conversation I will have with him when next I see him…"

"Ray's not a fan of people poking into his private business, from what I understand. And from what Ray has told me, Dante is showing an interest that is unwarranted and… annoying," GHOST explained carefully.

Kareina let out a sigh. "That boy… Honestly… I'm afraid that is simply how he is. Once something catches his interest, he makes it a point to understand it completely, curious lad that he is."

GHOST grimaced slightly as she heard that. "Ray hates that kind…"

"Well… It's not a childishly driven curiosity really. How did he once put it...? Ah yes, 'I'd rather take the time to understand something in its entirety for as long as I need to so I don't get screwed over later', is the phrase that he used."

"Then he's in for more verbal abuse. Ray's privacy means a lot to him," GHOST stated, though her tone was a little lower than before.

"Understandably. I will have words with young Dante when I can. He may attempt to avoid our weekly phone calls, but I assure you… there's no escaping…" she said speaking in an ominous tone briefly, keeping her smile about her.

Arex swallowed hard at that tone in a slight shiver, having been picking at her food and eating more of it as she avoided the conversation.

She… _really_ didn't want to talk about Niro.

He'd hear her.

"It'd be much less stressful for everyone if Ray was just left alone. It's how he prefers things," GHOST said softly. "It's always been like that, too."

"I'm sure he and young Dante will find common ground. Eventually."

'Eventually' was the key word there, Arex figured. It… took a lot for Ray to warm up to anyone, especially after rough starts.

Though Arex's involvement in the conversation flipped when GHOST turned to the phoenix with a firm gaze. "Arex, I think it's nearly time for you and Ray to go back to Ly's. He has something for you, regarding your membership."

"Oh, right…" She'd just joined Sentinel and all, she didn't really know what came next. Just accepting the offer took a lot out of her.

The girl quietly stood up, her bowl mostly empty now as she fixed her chair, giving Kareina an apologetic gaze.

"Oh? Is this a membership for a secret club?"

"I'm not supposed to talk about it," Arex replied, giving a small dip of the head. "Thank you for the food. It was good, and I liked the way you marinated it. It really made the beef tender and tasteful."

The phoenix offered a small smile in return to the meal as she pushed her chair in.

"I'm not usually a fan of meat, so..." Arex trailed off, but she got the point across.

"Ah, your words of praise alone have more worth to me than gold, Sweet Arex. I am very humbled," Kareina said with a polite bow.

 _She keeps calling me that…_ Arex's smile turned awkward as her shoulders shrunk in a little. "It's… polite to thank a cook for good food, so yeah."

She didn't know if she should return the bow.

But she didn't need to, since GHOST was already helping to escort her out of the room.

"I'll leave you to exit the same way you entered. I need to get Arex and Ray onto a bird and fly them out," GHOST spoke behind her, and Arex glanced back too just to give a small wave to the woman.

"What?! You possess large creatures to ride upon in the skies here as well?!"

GHOST flashed a very confused expression before slowly shaking her head.

"No… I meant aircraft…"

* * *

Arex was a little disheartened to leave the Vault after only seeing 4 levels of it, but they needed to head back.

It was just a visit, anyway. It wasn't supposed to be an all day endeavor.

Still… she kinda wanted it to be.

She stayed on the open door of the dropship for a few long seconds, almost reluctant to drop onto the marble below and finally let go of any chances of heading back to the Vault tonight.

But she resigned to it. Eventually.

The coastal breeze from the ocean had died down a little once she stepped out. It was much stronger earlier in the day. Black sneakers landed softly on the balcony ground as the wind slipping around the airship's hull wrapped around her now as well.

It was an inviting embrace, its cool touch sifting through her black hair as she straightened up on the balcony and glanced to the windows.

GHOST mentioned Ray had something for her, and a little information as well regarding her admission into Sentinel once they were back.

She didn't really know what that'd be though, or if there were any special protocols she'd need to know about.

Ray hopped out of the back of the dropship and landed on the balcony just behind her, waving off the quiet aircraft to dismiss it from the area before he turned to face the phoenix.

"Arex," he spoke out to garner her attention.

The wind fluttering Arex's glossy hair disturbed some of the golden blonde locks protruding out from the hem of Ray's violet beanie as he looked to her.

"You're going to need this. I trust you'll know what to do with it, but you won't be much of a member without it."

His amethyst eyes regarded her neutrally as he pulled a small box out from the pocket of his purple jacket.

The box he offered Arex was small, even smaller than the one her holographic projector came in, and it had Sentinel's all-seeing eye symbol on the lid.

A symbol Arex suddenly realized she should get used to seeing.

Because her name was attached to it now.

She gently took it when he offered it, pulling it into a careful grasp in both hands as she looked over its golden engraving.

It was light, but it almost seemed like the box itself was slightly weighted.

Not from the contents inside, but just from the encasement.

The phoenix silently pulled the lid off to find a black cushioned CPU chip nestled inside. Something she recognized to be compatible with her scroll.

Or any scroll-device, actually.

"This chip was designed specifically to closely mimic the one you use now, plus a couple of upgrades here and there while I had the time to do so," Ray explained casually as he maintained his gaze on her. "It shouldn't feel any different to your one, save the speed and power efficiency."

Arex's eyes slowly traced the golden soldering on the black chip's thin surface, a small smile forming in thanks, but also in growing meekness.

She'd custom-built her scroll's chip over the expanse of a year…

It was… almost embarrassing to know he could easily replicate it just like that.

"You can put this in your scroll, or go out and buy a whole new one for it, but you're going to need it in order to do anything Sentinel-related," Ray continued. "It'll grant you free, open access to the Vault, and GHOST can seamlessly connect to your scroll, instead of the patchy bullshit she uses now."

Arex gently slid the lid back into place to close the box as she looked up from it with a nod, keeping a careful grip of it in the calming wind. "I still like using my own scroll, so I'll install it tonight. Thank you."

Her mind immediately jumped to the open access of the Vault, and she couldn't help but smile a little at that.

It'd also be less straining on GHOST too, to stick around in her scroll so often. Which was nice for Arex to hear.

"There's a soldering iron in the toolbox under the kitchen sink, spare solder too if you need it. I figured you'd want it in as soon as possible anyway," Ray placed his hands in his jeans pockets as he spoke. "I also don't need to ask you what your nickname will be either. So welcome to Sentinel, _Sparrow_."

Arex's smile grew when she heard that name, her eyes looking out at the ocean for a second as she realized what that meant.

Was she… actually moving up a little, with her projects? Like Ly was hoping she'd do? Or did she already know Ray was going to recruit her eventually?

"I've grown fond of the name, so I'm happy to use it," Arex replied, looking down to the box again for a few seconds before her voice grew lighter in the soft wind. "Do the others know?"

"They've known for a while, and were probably betting on when you'd say yes." Ray's reply was blunt and straight to the point as he turned and leaned against the corner glass railing, facing the distant night ocean.

Arex's grin grew a little sheepish as she tilted her head with an awkward chuckle, still feeling nervous, but at least willing to get past her apprehension in accepting. "Of course they would. I got the impression everyone just silently knew about it, but never said anything to me."

It was probably to keep the pressure of the decision from feeling forced.

"I wanted to convince you to join while still making sure it was your choice. With the money, you took it but looked apprehensive about doing so. With GHOST, you came to me to investigate her and then accepted her protection without a second thought. And with the Vault, I knew from the look on your face that you _wanted_ to go and visit," Ray listed off evenly as he spared a moment to look at her.

He… he didn't have to rub it in like that. These kinds of decisions were always hard on her.

"In the end, this was _your_ decision, not a peer pressure impulse."

Arex's fingers started to fiddle awkwardly with the box in her hands as her sheepishness grew, eyes looking away again as they found their way to the dark waves below. "Sorry for taking so long, even after all that. And… thanks for being patient with me."

"You're a valuable asset, Arex. Don't apologize for acting like one. In the end, you did what I wanted in the first place. And that was make a decision," Ray said calmly, returning his gaze to the rising tide below. "Doesn't matter if you said yes or no, at least I can safely say you're not the puppet I thought you were after I hacked you."

She still felt bad he had to do so much to lead her to that decision, but she was happy to have actually gotten that far in her little world. She usually always avoided things like this. "I'm excited to see what I can do then. I just… hope all the effort pays off."

"And I look forward to handing you the new forge I'm building and a near limitless supply of materials to work with, it's a win-win for both of us." Ray placed his hand reassuringly on her shoulder as he pushed himself upright.

Arex's eyes brightened as she averted her gaze again, realizing how much she could actually do with that freedom.

"Once this Quinn shit is over, I'll also help you with your affinity. If that's what you want, of course."

But it all came reeling back in for a moment, the girl's eyes losing their luster as they lowered slightly against the night backdrop. "You don't have to do that."

"You're right. I don't. But I have a facility built for the sole purpose of helping other people. Wouldn't make sense if I didn't offer that to you," Ray began walking toward the apartment as he said that. "After all, I think we can both agree that Beacon still isn't the safest place to train you."

He was right when he said that. She knew that. But… she didn't know if she could actually get past her problem in the first place.

Not with how much it held her back.

"I'd…" she slowly started to say, lowering her chin as she heard his steps grow closer to the sliding glass door. "I'd love to say yes, but I doubt you'd get very far with me. I'm just happy to help in non-combat scenarios for now, if I can."

Ray's steps stopped just before the door. "I'm not asking you to fight. There are others that can do that in your place. I'm giving you this offer because you need it."

Her grip on the box in her hands grew tighter as she heard the glass door slide open, light from inside pouring across the balcony as the curtains were ushered aside.

Then the door closed, and that light disappeared.

Leaving Arex in the dark again.

She wished he knew… just how much she wanted that.

She didn't just need it.

* * *

"She coming in soon?" Anoel asked, arms resting on the top of the couch's backrest as she peered over it.

Ray returned the gaze she gave him and shrugged. "She has some things to reflect on. I can't give you an answer."

Ano hummed softly as she placed her chin on her folded arms, eyes regarding him with a careful, but neutral stare.

It was actually more tired and relaxed than anything else.

"She'll come in eventually. She gets cold easily," Anoel said, glancing over to the hat she rested on the top corner of the couch.

Seyda was still asleep at her side, cuddled into the cushions and pillows. Anoel had long since extracted the feline's tail from her tight, protective clutches.

It gave her something to pet. And she wanted to show Kitsuki that it was alright to touch it.

The kitsune wasn't being subtle about how longingly she was staring at the furry appendage either.

But, after a little while of the mute girl petting Seyda's tail Anoel draped over the kitsune's lap, the info-broker managed to curl the girl up with the tail and put her to sleep with an extensive ear rub.

It was cute. Seeing Kit curl her own fluffy tails up around her body to entangle themselves with the fur of Seyda's long tail and entwine with her tucked legs.

It'd only taken an hour for Ano to finally wiggle herself out from under the dense thing.

But at least she was finally out.

"You know she's gonna want to go out once she wakes, right?" Ly called from across the breakfast bar, the thief fixing herself an adult beverage. "Seyda's not one to sit at home and do nothing."

Anoel glanced down to the feline faunus with a quirk of a delicate brow, eventually turning that gaze back to Ly by the kitchen. "She's slept all day. But I suppose she'll want to work once her nocturnal shift rolls around…"

She frowned for a moment that it might involve waking Kit up, but it'd be amusing to see.

"She'll have to deal with a sleeping tail-offender when she does. But I'm sure she won't mind," Ano said.

"Why do you think she's slept all day? You two kept her lulled into unconsciousness," Ly replied with a little smirk as she walked over and took a seat on the couch next to them.

Anoel adjusted herself as Ly joined her, moving to a more open position away from the mess of white tails between Seyda's and Kit's curled frames to welcome the thief.

It took a little crawling, but her eyes drifted over once she and Ly settled in.

Ly held a drink in both hands as she pulled her legs up and laid them across the cushions, body sinking back into the couch as she curled into Ano's side.

"Well, it's not _my_ fault my fingers can get a little heated when I touch things. If anything, it's Seyda's for deciding to sleep with her tail accessible in my curious vicinity," Anoel offered, peering into the glass Ly walked over with to try to distinguish what it was.

"You stole her tail out from under her with more care than I put into that emerald you tipped me off to," Ly countered as she rolled her eyes playfully.

"I really wanted it," Anoel said, resting her head on Lylac's shoulder. Her own body was still sore, so she didn't want to move very much.

Ano held a sharp breath as she brought her own legs onto the couch and rested them over Ly's lap, tucking into the woman's side to enjoy the heat she brought with her.

"Whatcha drinking?" she asked in a quiet hum, keeping a half-lidded gaze in her comfort.

"I dunno. I just mixed it together, like a lab experiment," Ly replied, pink eyes peering into Ano's own. "Try some."

The little hum leaving Ano's pressed lips grew curious as the info-broker delicately plucked the glass from Ly's fingers, taking a little sip to test the flavor.

It wasn't startlingly strong, but it had a little kick.

"Sweet," Anoel concluded, eyeing the blue color for a few moments. "And no aftertaste. That's good."

"Yeah… it almost tastes like _fruit_." Ly's smirk widened knowingly as she stared at Ano smugly.

Anoel took another sip to hide her amused smile away, slipping the glass back into Ly's grasp a moment later to rest her head on her slender shoulder again. "Do you know what else tastes like fruit?"

Her voice was happily innocent as she spoke that, closing her eyes peacefully against Ly's body.

"You do," Ly's voice was happily guilty as she quickly replied.

A small blush formed on Ano's cheeks as she hummed in thought, opening her eyes again to peer back at Ly's amused gaze.

She wondered if she could see her red cheeks.

"I was going to say juice," Ano murmured playfully. "But I guess not all juice comes from fruit."

"If you're thirsty, I have both…" Ly remarked casually before sipping her drink.

Anoel gave a long hum as she watched Ly's face, soon nuzzling herself back into Lylac's shoulder as she let a relaxed smile splay across her lips. "I think I'll be just fine drinking in your warmth like this and sharing that little drink you made."

Ano's body settled in again as the sound of the balcony door opening quietly cut into the room, wind rustling the white curtains slightly before it closed away.

"Hey Arex, how was your visit?" Ly asked as she turned to regard the girl with a happy smile.

The girl's eyes turned back to look at Ly as she returned the smile, hugging her lithe arms to herself. After a moment, Arex quietly made her way further into the warm room to cross into the living area.

"I only got to see a few levels, but I'm excited to go back. I already have a favorite room there, too," Arex responded evenly, leaning down to cross one foot over the back of the other as she rested her arms on the couch's backrest.

"Would it be Level 7, by any chance?" Ly asked amusedly.

Arex's smile grew softer as she tapped the tip of her sneaker against the carpet, eyes roaming down to her partner curled up on the cushions. "Easily."

Lylac's smile widened a little as she nodded. " _Yep._ You and Ray both. GHOST seems to attract nerds."

The AI's holographic figure appeared on Ano's legs staring up at Ly with a cross look on her face, her arms crossed, and tapping her left foot.

"In the _good_ way."

Arex rolled her eyes at that as she smiled in amusement, watching Anoel's slim finger start to poke and prod at GHOST's little head. "Well, she had no trouble attracting a nerd like me then. I didn't stand much of a chance."

Anoel's own gaze cocked to the side for a moment as she smirked. "Arex, I can put you on the end of a _fishing_ _line_ and _still_ reel you around like a little fluttering feather if it meant taking you somewhere you can cutely geek out."

Her little sister's face immediately went red in retaliation to that.

But it was still true.

"I'm sure her next visit will be a lot of fun, considering there was no way in hell she'd see everything in a single night. It'd _easily_ take a week to see all the interesting things the Vault has to offer," Ly supplied, casually ushering GHOST's avatar toward Arex.

Anoel's gaze dropped back down as Arex's averted, the action almost impossible _not_ to read in full from her sister as GHOST floated beside her.

It was surprisingly straightforward.

"Well, it's a good thing she can go back with GHOST whenever she wants then," Anoel commented, dancing a casual set of delicate fingers over Ly's bare arm playfully. "I'm sure she has full access now."

Arex's eyes immediately went a little wide as the short girl stared down at Ano on the couch, the older sister smirking to herself as she rested the side of her head back against Ly's arm.

Ly turned to face Arex with a little smirk. " _Yeah…_ we know."

The young phoenix's gaze danced between the two sitting together on the couch before sighing, slumping into the arms she had pressed into the top of the backrest.

"I-I guess it was pretty obvious then, wasn't it…?" she asked lightly.

"Honey, there wasn't a single one of us who didn't have money down on when you'd finally cave," Anoel commented back, gazing over Ly's shoulder now with a coy smile.

"Even Kitsuki there placed money on it," Ly added, mimicking the info-broker.

Arex just gaped at that, face going a little red as she lowered her chin away from the twin stares. Reflexively trying to hide from them. "S-Seriously?"

Ly giggled before shaking her head. "No, I'm just kidding. She probably had no idea. She was more interested in Seyda's tail, took her an hour to really realise you weren't here."

"O-Oh…" Arex muttered, drifting her gaze back to her partner curled up on the couch beneath her. It wasn't until now the phoenix noticed the foreign tail clung possessively to Kit's sleeping body.

She told Kit she was leaving, so she knew that must've been an act from the kitsune.

But she didn't think Kit would try so hard to absently distract herself before getting tired enough to fall asleep without Arex being here with her.

She always hated it when the phoenix wasn't around.

"That reminds me," Arex quietly said, eyes growing softer now as she returned them to Ly's gaze. "Will Ray freak out if I bring Kit with me to the Vault?"

Lylac's smirk dropped before her eyebrows furrowed slightly. "Define 'freak out'."

Arex sucked in an unsure breath as her voice rose a little in pitch, mulling over how she wanted to put that. "As in, he won't let her in."

Ly took a small breath herself before setting her glass on Ano's legs, hand still clasping it. The chilled glass pulled a tiny whimper out of Ano and a deeper cuddle for warmth in response.

"It depends on how much he trusts her… He's… not a fan of Kitsune, to say the least."

Arex silently nodded to that. She… kind of realized that with what happened at the Vault earlier. With Kareina. "Should I wait to bring it up? We just had a run-in with one today… I don't think he'd like it if I asked him about it tonight."

"He had a run-in…? At the Vault?" Ly asked as her eyes narrowed slightly.

Arex just bit her lip in response to that, not really sure how to put it. "It was… my classmate's mom…"

"Inuba… Yeah… not sure if you can tell, but he _really_ doesn't like that group of people," Ly murmured as she brought her glass back up to her lips. "They _irk_ him."

"Yeah, I could tell," Arex murmured back, fingers starting to tug a little at the material of the couch as she tapped the tip of her sneaker into the floor again. "Does he associate Kit with that group at all?"

"Not that I can tell. He takes the Vault very personally and likes to know exactly what's going on at all times there. I suppose if you were to ask him, he'd take the request more seriously," Ly softly replied. "So long as she's not prone to touch _everything_ she sees, it should be okay."

Arex pursed her lips for a moment as she sighed, resting the tip of her sneaker down to balance behind the back of her supporting foot. "Then… I have a chance of convincing him to let me, so long as I keep a careful eye on her."

"He won't have to worry about her touching anything, though," Anoel chimed in quietly, sounding a little drowsy as she rested her head more comfortably into the crook of Ly's neck. "Kit's only point of interest inside a place like that would be the girl taking her in with her."

Arex's eyes fell back to Anoel for a moment in a blank stare, before looking away again in a growing fluster. "She's not really a fan of techy stuff like I am."

"I'd like to think he'd be okay with it. But to really find out for sure, you'd have to ask him," Ly supplied calmly as she smiled again. "And put up a pretty strong set of conditions to follow. He tends to favor people who keep to their word."

Arex let out a little breath as she nodded to that. "I'll ask him… and I will, thanks. I just… need to think of a good way to word it."

"Tell him you'll put her on a leash and he'll be fine," Anoel cut in again, starting to try less and less to keep herself upright on the couch.

She was starting to lean more of herself into Ly's body as her arms wrapped around Lylac's torso, starting to drift off.

"Comfortable, Ano?" Ly asked as she raised her arm to wrap it around the info-broker's shoulders.

As Arex watched Anoel hum drowsily in response to that, she couldn't help but smile a little at the interaction between them.

She'd been kind of waiting for something like this to happen.

"She gets tired when she's on the mend from injuries," Arex informed quietly, tilting her head slightly to sway her raven hair a little. "It happens every time."

"I know…" Ly murmured with a smile. "Feel free to join in, you look a little tired yourself."

Arex bit her lip again as she actually considered that, but she slowly shook her head before pushing herself away from the couch to stand again. "I'm tired, but I have something I want to install tonight. And I should probably put Kit to bed, too… before Seyda wakes up."

The girl's eyes drifted back to her partner on the couch, her lithe body still curled up loosely beneath the cover of her three tails. Two fox ears twitched silently on the kitsune's head, but only from the subtle sounds of the room around her.

Kit had that passive, lax look on her cute face. The way she always looked when she was sleeping peacefully.

"If you can successfully pry Kit from that bushy tail in her arms, I'll be surprised," Ly replied amusedly as her eyes fell on the two sleeping next to Ano. "Argent will probably mock Seyda all week if he sees it."

Arex quietly made her way around the couch to get to her partner, giving her a passive look of thought as she entertained what Ly mentioned for a second. "I'm almost tempted to leave her here long enough for Argent to witness it, but I don't want Seyda getting mad at Kit for stealing her tail."

"What's the time, actually?" Ly asked the phoenix as she lifted Ano's bare legs from across her own, shifting the woman slightly to move her body fully onto her own lap.

"Late. Almost eleven, actually."

The blonde hummed in response, Arex watching for a moment as Ly wrapped her arms around the sleeping info-broker's frame, the thief keeping a careful and affectionate gaze on Ano's face to make sure she wasn't disturbing her sleep.

Arex really appreciated that.

"She really likes you, you know," Arex pointed out quietly, leaning over Kitsuki's curled up body to gently pinch and rub the kitsune's ears from base to tip.

After the second stroke, the kitsune's arms went lax enough for Arex to softly withdraw Seyda's tail, the phoenix making sure she moved one of Kit's own tails over to replace it.

"After getting her butt handed to her like this, I can tell," Ly replied softly as she brushed some of Ano's hair out of her sleeping face, then tenderly held her head against her chest. "The feeling's mutual though."

Arex calmly lifted Kitsuki's light body into her arms. The kitsune's legs draped toward the ground while her white head lulled against the phoenix's chest, but the girl otherwise stayed fast asleep.

Her gaze drew back to Ly as she stood up, a distant, but caring look meeting with Ly's own.

"I don't think she's accepted that yet… That anyone can feel that way about her," Arex said softly, gazing at how tenderly Ly held Anoel against her.

"She may have good eyes, but she's still blind…" Ly murmured.

Arex drew her gaze away as she slowly made her way back around the couch, drifting her eyes back to the door to the room she was staying in.

But her voice found its way back to Ly, even quieter than it was before.

"I don't want to be the one to say it… but I know she's too afraid to admit it on her own. Even though she acts like she can." Arex turned a soft gaze back to Ly on the couch, keeping Kit held closely in her arms. "She's in love with you, Ly."

Ly's face went lax as the tiniest hint of red emitted from her cheeks, her eyes briefly breaking contact with Arex's to look at Ano for a moment before returning to the forger with a smile.

She didn't say anything, but she didn't have to.

"Just…" Arex's voice fell into a breathless whisper as she dropped her gaze to the ground, "don't let her run away from it. She's afraid of taking that leap."

When her gaze drew back to the couch, she caught the small nod of Ly's head.

Smile never falling.

It was a reassuring sight to see. Arex just wished Anoel wasn't going to be quick to run this time.

She gets that way when something really mattered to her.

 _Especially_ when she wanted to hold onto it forever.

She was… good at denying herself that.

Arex quietly turned around, eyes falling to a figure standing in the hallway behind her. But all she met was a pair of shades when she cast her gaze up to his face.

Argent was awake.

The boy silently stared down at Arex for a few moments before nodding at her, face neutral in its pale appearance.

She just gave him a faint smile in return before making her way past him, his frame stepping aside to let her through as she disappeared into her room.

* * *

 **Oh, hey, Arex is part of Sentinel now.**

 **Also shipping.**

 **And character relations. Plot's calming down. Conflict** **incoming?**

 **For now,** _ **Favorite**_ **and** _ **Follow**_ **.**

 **I look forward to seeing** _ **REVIEWS**_ **for this. You'll be introduced to a LOT of concepts of mine. Feel free to give me your thoughts.**

 **Cya XP**

* * *

 **Omake:** _by Xera Stark and andy2396_

* * *

"Look look ms. Ghost," Kareina stated as she leaned towards Arex, hand covering her mouth. "See how flustered she becomes when mentioning her partner?"

 _Oh…_ Arex whimpered softly as she shrunk a little under the announcement, her face immediately reddening. _So that's what she's on about…_

She didn't eat the kitsune's stew to be called out like this… she was eating it to be polite.

And she was hungry.

She missed most of dinner, after all, despite helping make it.

"So…?" Kareina asked, failing to pull GHOST's attention as the AI regarded Arex with a neutrally casual look. She was used to this kind of behavior from the phoenix.

It was practically predictable by now.

"Have you courted her yet?" Kareina asked excitedly.

What little food was currently _in_ Arex's mouth quickly made its way down Arex's throat in a fiery swallow, coughing as soon as it was out of the way.

Face turning redder with a squeaked response coming back out of her.

"W-What?"

"Young Dante has spoken tales of how you take longing glances at your little partner. I believe he said 'She's very likely head over tails for her', or something to that degree."

Arex's chin dipped down into her arms, bowl quickly scooting ahead of her as she tucked away viciously red cheeks behind her sleeves.

"T-That's not h-his place to say…" she murmured in a soft muffle into the light fabric of her sweater.

Even her arms felt the heat radiating straight through the fireproof fabric, Arex's nose burying further into the crook of her arm.

"I thought 'to court someone' is usually referred to in the sexual manner," GHOST chimed in, eyes glancing up for a moment as if reading from a definition. "To which I can safely say, Arex has not 'courted' Kitsuki as of yet. But is close to."

Arex's eyes immediately narrowed into a heated glower at the AI, her heart screaming in very _loud_ and _thumping_ betrayal from the pain of that backstab.

"Courting isn't entirely sexual you know? It starts off with wooing your target in a manner of ways until finally one takes the other spontaneously."

"S-Spontaneously…?" Arex's voice cracked, as quiet as it already was.

"Yes… Anywhere…" Kareina said as she leaned in closer from across the table, "at any time…"

Arex adopted the very old strategy of imitating a cute tomato as she buried her face fully into her arms, steam starting to slip up from her bangs and around her ears.

"I believe one of those steps has already been achieved, though. From my observations and conversations with the kitsune, she's already been enthralled," GHOST informed, _not_ helping Arex's case _at all_. "If anything, Kitsuki would be the one to take Arex if given the chance."

"Oho!" Kareina said with a pleased smile. "Careful now young Arex. Our kind are known for 'pouncing' at unexpected times."

The poor phoenix reached full red as she simmered in her little heap of feathers at the table, trying and failing to shrink even smaller in her seat with every passing second.

This needed to _stop_. She couldn't handle this.

"Oh, I think she knows. She's just waiting for it because she's afraid Kit doesn't feel the same way," GHOST chirped teasingly, having the _nerve_ to smile innocently at Arex's side. "Notice how she hasn't denied anything yet."

A sudden quake softly shook the mountain overhead, flashing the lights of the Vault for a moment as Arex whimpered into her arms.

Was the room getting hotter? She was feeling hot… _really_ hot…

The room was definitely getting hotter.

"That's… odd," GHOST murmured, looking up at the ceiling. "We're leagues underground. Tremors from the surface shouldn't be reaching this far."

"Perhaps there are tiny creatures digging about?" Kareina offered.

"We _did_ have an invasive Dremoha problem a while back, but that was swiftly dealt with," GHOST replied, turning her gaze to the eastward wall. "This is…"

Another quake cut the lights this time, violently shaking the entire kitchen and compound before the white lighting kicked back on.

"Definitely not something small," GHOST finished. "It's closing in on us."

Another quake, this one actually _cracking_ the eastern wall of the kitchen as the occupants rocked on the shaking floor.

"This is bad," GHOST quickly surmised, glancing around rapidly for the defensive protocols to take action. "It's drilling through the _planet_ to get to us. I don't... There isn't anything installed to drill out there and-"

The crack in the white, metal-plated, _armored_ wall shattered in a webbing of dislodged, broken fragments in an inward explosion of debris.

Sunlight broke through the seams of dust and cascading rock, revealing a dark, muskily shrouded silhouette in the catching rays of the sun.

And _how_ that sunlight was even _reaching_ them was beyond GHOST's comprehension.

The figure was humanoid. Dangerously so. And it held something blocky and solid in its right hand.

Maybe a hammer?

Wait…

GHOST's scanners immediately picked up signs of something bready and saucy _inside_ the presumed battering device, the AI's eyes widening as Arex stood up from the table.

When the dust finally settled, Arex groaned inwardly, her blush still bright and simmering on her cheeks as she eyed the one who just literally _broke_ into the Vault.

"Couldn't you have _called?_ " the phoenix asked, closing the distance between herself and the new guest to brush some of the heavy layers of dirt resting on his coat.

Of all places, _Niro_ just had to come _here_.

"Your sister wanted me to give you this," Niro returned evenly, as if this _wasn't_ out of the ordinary. The layers of dirt and stone riddling his attire slipped away in the next moment, as if his body _repelled_ the damn stuff as he lifted a lunchbox into view. "Ly fixed you something to eat."

This… this was unimaginable.

"Y-You could've used the door…" Arex muttered, softly taking the black lunchbox Niro offered her. "GHOST would've let you in."

"I did use a door," Niro deadpanned.

Arex's feathers immediately bristled. "T-That's not what I meant!"

Niro simply turned away and started heading back where he came from.

A steeply _diagonal_ , nearly _vertical_ tunnel straight back to the surface.

Arex just stood there panting, still red.

Why was _everybody_ Arex knew so _weird_ …?

"Well now, that was a pleasant surprise. We had the opportunity to see what people call a westerner, or cowboy," the kitsune stated, the only one unperturbed by all that.

Arex sighed in another tiny whimper as the hole in front of her started to close up, reassembling itself after Niro's exit.

"I-I'm…" the phoenix quietly whispered, an uneven voice matching how lost she suddenly felt. "I'm going home..."


	49. Sentiment

Rogue Huntsman

Sentiment

«»

"Why are you still following me?" I grumbled, pushing a branch out of my way before letting it go.

A healthy snap cracked against my stalker's arm as she brushed the attack aside, stepping through the forest behind me.

"Because why not?" the brunette asked. Or rather, more _formally_ , the firm ice cream in space believer.

"Not a real reason," I muttered, placing my gloved hand on the trunk of an old, tall tree to step over its root system. Seemed to have been around for just over three hundred years, given how it felt.

"Neither was yours when I asked you where you were going," Skyla chirped annoyingly, slipping around the other side of the tree to catch up to my side.

Couldn't the tree just reach out and slap her?

"I didn't give you an answer." I could _hear_ the tree groaning too. We were all aggravated, it seemed.

"Exactly!" She exclaimed, pitched voice sounded more like a gunshot in the bristling forest. Harsher than the wind slipping through the canopy and its occupants.

Could've probably been heard for miles too, just like the concussive ring of an actual _bullet_.

"Where I'm going won't exactly be easy," I stated evenly, stealing the smallest of glances to see her face.

She had the stupidest grin when I looked at her.

And a stupid face.

"It'll be fun!" Another bullet in the form of her _voice_ echoed through the trees. It was a damn good thing I wasn't trying to be unnoticed. "Come on, just you and me, this tree and that tree, we'll have so much fun! Where are we going anyway?"

"Somewhere between Mistral and Vale," I finally answered, giving her a dead, sour look.

Could you die please?

Maybe something would kill her on the way.

"Oooo, so what's out there?"

"Ask another question, and I'll happily throw you there so you can find out," I growled, taking another step forward to keep my pace through the forest grounds.

My only hope was the couple packs of Grimm rummaging about in the trees, trying to be stealthy in their prowls.

Not like _somebody's_ piercing voice wasn't reaching them or anything.

"Oh oh, can you just throw me now then?" Skyla jumped up and down like a little kid in an ice cream factory, ready to be kicked to the moon.

I could do that.

But she wouldn't survive the kick.

It was horrendously inaccurate anyway. She'd probably miss the moon altogether and crash into some void of space to eat the asteroids of ice cream spinning around her.

After all, her confidence was easily large enough to make up for her gravitational _lack_ of _mass_.

I needed to kill her.

But that was what she wanted…

"On second thought, it'd probably be better if I threw you the other way," I said, coming to a slow stop to look at her.

She was aerodynamic enough to make it over Vale.

Maybe hit Vacuo's desert region.

Now that I thought about it, that sounded like a _great_ plan.

"Nah, I wanna come with you-" I cut her off by grabbing her arm and _straight-tossing_ her backward, where we came.

That _piercing voice_ laughed and giggled as she broke the sound barrier and crashed through the forest canopy above.

I even made sure to throw her _through_ one of the tall trees reaching up there. Just for added effect.

"Don't come back…" The words were out of my mouth before I realized something small and _annoying_ just landed safely on the ground about a mile away.

She _really_ didn't know how to quit! And what knocked her out of the sky? A damn _bird_?!

I picked up the nearest stone and sent it through the same Skyla-shaped hole in the branches above, hearing the dull _crack_ and _thud_ of something very large and avian hitting the ground soon after.

She was either _lucky_ or _painfully determined_.

My money was on the former. Because she was _enjoying_ this.

"I'm back-!"

"No you're not." I grabbed Skyla's arm again just as she landed on her feet beside me, tossing her the _same way_ again.

She hit another nevermore and came crashing back down.

I… Am going to _kill_. Whatever celestial _entity_. Is _doing_ this.

"Again again!" the girl _chirped_ , like the damn birds she'd been _crashing into_. And she had the nerve to hold up her arms and jump around me, again, like a school girl high on scooters and drugs.

"I'm not throwing you a third time," I growled in irritation, crushing the cloth of my glove into my hand as I finally got back on track and continued forward.

And yet, she _still_ followed me. After all that.

"Am I annoying you?"

Do you even _need_ to _ask_?

"I'm annoying you aren't I…?"

I was two steps away from tying her to the nearest tree then _throwing that tree_ to Vacuo. At least _then_ it wouldn't come back down if it _hit something mid-flight_.

She jumped back to my side and fell in line with my steps, trying to peer forward and up beneath the rim of my black hat. A wide _smile_ twisted her lips, even a damn sparkle glistened in her eyes as she saw my scowl.

I guess some humans weren't born with the innate ability to recognize imminent death when they looked at it.

"Good," she chirped again, straightening back up to give me a smug, _proud_ look.

What the hell did she mean by _'Good'?_

There were _Grimm_ three paces away that I was starting to _plan_ feeding her to.

"That means you're human. Cause you're getting fed up with how I've been acting." Skyla's voice fell into a more even, consistent tone at that.

Losing its playfulness and innocence.

A damn liar with a face of a maskless clown.

"I never said I wasn't," I grumbled back, wondering if I could squeeze my hand around her neck to fit the slim thing entirely into my hand.

"But you never said you were, either," the brunette continued, lightly clasping her hands together behind her as she walked with more casual, but slightly accentuated strides. "Word has it that you might not even be human. People are even wondering where you _came_ from, because some curious students have tried looking into each kingdom's hospital records to find your origin."

"And I care about this, _why_?" I asked, keeping my even pace as the Grimm ahead of us started to close in.

"You don't, but I did," Skyla responded, smiling curiously now as she dipped forward and ducked under a branch I tried snapping back at her. "It wouldn't have caught my interest if they actually came up with something. Like woo hoo, you were born in Vale. Yippity do. But apparently, they came up with nothing. Searched every database too."

"Not everything's digitally logged, you know," I replied, losing my grumble now in wake of a more even, but low tone.

You aren't some ace detective, so stop looking into it.

"So I started asking around, you know? Just visiting the hospitals in Vale to start," she continued.

My cold gaze caught sight of a flash of black fur ahead of us, a streak of molten red blazing behind its shrouded eye as it disappeared into the brush.

Skyla didn't seem to notice.

"Turns out, about 18 years ago," Skyla voiced again, incessant with its annoyingly calm tone, "one of the major hospitals was demolished due to a localize outbreak of an unknown plague. Swiftly took the lives of every worker, patient, and living being in the immediate area inside and around the building in a four block radius before dissipating into the air."

 _That's it_. I snapped my glove forward and ripped the beowolf hiding in the brush ahead of us out of its cover with a burst of green strands, yanking it back toward Skyla's strolling frame.

But the poor furry projectile crashed into her distractedly rising palm before she redirected it into the ground, crushing its skull with a flick of the finger.

"I wasn't done yet," she said, holding up her finger as she continued walking and talking. "Anyway, what I was trying to say was-"

I threw another beowolf at her.

She crushed it into the nearest tree.

"-that the incident _was_ recorded, and the death records-"

And another, only for _that_ one to be impaled onto the nearest low-reaching branch.

"-of everyone who perished was logged."

She just wouldn't stop talking.

A _pack_ of beowolves were next, strands yanking them in a claw-drawn cluster before slamming them toward the slimly built, slender girl walking behind me.

Every last one of them disintegrated before touching her.

That was the first time I saw her eyes glow with aura.

"The logged names wouldn't have been too important, really, but I stumbled across one name in specific," Skyla finished her little _rant_ , and _I_ was out of fleshy ammunition.

"There better be a point in all this," I stated darkly, eyeing her through the shadow of my cowboy hat as we resumed walking.

"Iridelia Alyra Ezdeil."

I stopped, and she stopped too.

It wasn't like I didn't see the name coming. I saw it hurtling toward me from a mile away in the form of a breakable human being.

But what I wasn't expecting… was for her to actually say it out loud.

I hadn't heard that name in over ten years.

The same name my father used to formulate the name Ahrulian. His sad excuse was that the glove needed a motherly touch, something to always keep nestled in the wielder's hand.

To guide it.

I forget the last time I took the glove off after donning it, now that I had a reason to wonder about that.

"That was her name, wasn't it…?" Skyla asked softly, peering up at me from the mildly close distance away she stood at. There wasn't even a root breaking out of the ground between us.

Just dirt and leaves.

"She had a pretty name," the girl continued, lowering her voice into a whisper now that the wind had died down to give way to silence. "I wish I'd met the woman it belonged to."

Yeah…

That makes two of us.

Too bad I'd never meet her, because wherever she went, I've already damned myself to rot in Hell.

"Curiosity can get you killed. I hope you know that," I responded, keeping my voice even in the dwindling silence of the forest as I brought myself to keep walking.

"Curiosity leads me to answers," Skyla retorted just as evenly, following alongside me again. "Even if those answers aren't the kind I'm looking for, but end up with."

"Happens more than you think," I muttered. My eyes finally caught signs of a clearing between the trees as I noticed a curtain of light in the distance.

A curtain of light, and a black, stone obelisk.

"Today's the anniversary of her death…" Skyla's soft voice spoke out again, her feet stopping just at the edge of the clearing as I made my way into it. "And your birthday."

* * *

Anoel hummed for a few long moments as she tapped the black encasement of her closed scroll, sitting leisurely at the breakfast bar.

Thinking.

A couple unread messages sat just inside it, having been sent to Niro's scroll.

She knew what today was, but he wasn't responding.

She'd officially been banned from cooking any kind of meal in the kitchen under Arex's strict orders, too. Not Ly's. Whom of which was mixing another drink by the counter in front of her.

Ano would've been on her scroll sifting through her network or at least messaging Niro if he responded, but she wanted to do something today to make up for a little of what happened and the stress she put Ly under.

If Niro was gone, like he always was at this time of year, she had the day to do it. Considering she had a small legion of her network running her errands for her regarding Quinn's family ties.

It could take them a couple hours to a couple days just to come back with the smallest piece of information.

Or none at all.

If that was the case, she'd have to go out herself.

Until then, the day was hers. But she didn't want to spend it like that.

"Hey, Ly?" Anoel asked idly, spinning her scroll in small circles in front of her.

"Hm?" the thief replied distractedly, shaking her drink mixer, before pouring it into a glass and going to take a sip.

"I was thinking…" Anoel started, resting her cheek in the palm of her hand as she tilted her head a little. It was more just to distract herself, really. "We've never really been on a proper date yet. Like a fancy dinner, or a dance, or something."

The info-broker glanced up to see Ly's face contort into a grimace, expressing her disgust at her experimental drink before immediately pouring the contents into the sink. Watered eyes turned her way a moment later as Ly faced her.

"T-That's a very good point…" the girl sputtered as she wiped her eyes, soon muttering under her breath. " _Gods…_ that was _awful_ …"

"Looked awful," Anoel commented distractedly, eyes sifting over the features of Ly's body and face before looking away. "I want to start making it up to you. And… I was thinking a nice dinner would be a good place to start. Since we've never done that before."

Ly's gaze grew thoughtful as she composed herself, turning to face Ano directly. "And I don't suppose you know how these dinners work, do you? Because I don't. I believe there's a lot more to just the uh… food."

Anoel's brow furrowed for a moment as she heard that. She didn't know how they worked either.

Or proper dates, for that matter.

"I think it's mostly about dressing up and enjoying each other's company, right?" Ano asked, bringing her gaze back to Lylac.

Ly nodded with a little smile. "Yeah, though… we _could_ just wing it."

Ano quirked a delicate brow in face of the pun, eyes staring incredulously at Ly's face. "Did you do that on purpose?"

"No, but I'll take it anyway." Ly's smirk grew a little as she stared at Ano and shook her head.

The phoenix broke into a small smile of her own as she saw that. "Well, I'm happy to try to wing it then. You don't own a dress though… and neither do I."

Anoel's lips pursed pensively as she rested more heavily into her hand, tapping her fingers against her cheek.

"We can always go shopping for them," Ano offered.

"Only if we're buying them for each other," Ly replied, giving Ano a little narrow gaze. "I know for a fact that I'll buy something for myself thinking I like it, only for me to put it on and actually hate it."

Ano smirked a little at the idea. "I'm fine with that. I can find you something nice to wear."

"Then it's settled," Ly beamed, before her face immediately shifted into a deadpan. "No boots. If I have to _suffer_ through wearing heels, _you're_ suffering with me."

Anoel gaped at that. "I would _never_ wear boots on a date," she almost sounded appalled at the very idea.

She would've. She hated heels.

But she caved to Lylac's stern gaze.

"Fine, I'll wear some fancy heels with you," Anoel muttered deflatedly, lowering her hands to the bar to push herself off her stool and onto her feet.

A dull ache shot through her legs for a moment, knees wobbling just slightly before she got ahold of her balance by grasping at the stool beside her. Ly removed her stitches this morning. So, at least she was healing.

"You ready?" Ano asked, acting as if she didn't just struggle to stand a moment before.

"Mhmm," Ly hummed as she tidied up the countertop, ditching the rest of her poorly made drink in the sink and washing out her mixer.

"Good. I'll throw on my _boots_ ," Anoel commented playfully, pushing away from the breakfast bar to head down the hall.

"Don't forget your walking stick, you cripple," Ly replied mockingly, grinning as she made her way out of the kitchen. "Wouldn't want you to fall over now, would we?"

Anoel chuckled amusedly at that as she bounced a hand off the wall, considering she just stumbled a little. "Don't worry, I won't forget it. You're coming with me, aren't you?"

Her voice turned playfully hurt as she glanced back at Ly, eyeing up her cute walking stick following her to their room.

"Without you, I wouldn't know what to do. Kinda hard when someone sweeps me off my feet like that," Ano commented with a coy smile.

"Without me, you'd be lonely," the thief replied as she followed close behind her. "And probably dead."

Anoel rolled her eyes at that as she strolled into the door to their bedroom. "5 years, and you're still as blunt as ever. But you're not wrong."

Ly's hand brushed against the small of Ano's back as she slipped past her. "When am I ever wrong?"

The fleeting touch brought a small arch out of Anoel's back, despite its soreness, before that playful heat slipped away. "Is that you saying you're always right?" Ano asked lightly, grabbing her boots to sit down on the bed.

Only to get an eyeful of her bare legs and thin shirt.

She sighed for a moment before setting the boots down and pushing herself back up, venturing into the closet after Ly.

She needed a quick change of clothes. She'd actually completely forgotten she was still in her pajamas for the day.

"I was right enough to always keep black shirts and jeans that fit you, if that's what you're asking," she simpered in return, looking over her shoulder to grin at the info-broker.

"I think it's just you being jealous and making sure I don't walk into town without any pants on," Anoel returned, stopping just inside the walk-in closet to see Ly turn and place a spare change of clothes into her hands. "Thank you. Just my size, too."

"That's because you don't ever put on weight," Ly countered. "A trait of yours that I actually admit to being jealous of."

Ano hummed bemusedly as Ly turned away, her hand sifting over the clothes hanging by the wall to find her own attire.

Anoel's own arms lightly wrapped around the thief from behind before the info-broker rested her chin over Ly's shoulder. "I'm not the one who can see through clothes. And I have to be light, or I wouldn't be able to fly."

Ly's hands rested on Anoel's arms. "Yeah, I know, flying is your form of getting high."

"Not my only form." Ano pressed a faint kiss to Ly's neck before nuzzling her.

She was content to stay like that for a few minutes, just holding Ly. But it was also a small way to keep her weight off her legs for a few moments.

Ly had to get her clothes though, so Anoel reluctantly starting slipping her arms away.

"I thought we were here to put clothes _on_ , not take them off…" Ly muttered teasingly as she picked out her own attire.

"We're _changing_ clothes, Lylac," Anoel pointed out, stepping back for a moment to look more closely at the articles Ly handed to her. "That involves taking clothes off first before putting others back on."

Ly frowned at her. "You gonna teach me to suck eggs next or are you done stating the obvious?"

"If you don't want me telling you what you already know, you shouldn't leave openings like that for me," Anoel teased, starting to tug at the hem of her shirt with sore arms. "You know I can't resist when you open yourself up like that."

A tiny sigh left Ly's mouth as she rolled her eyes, exiting the walk-in closet with her own change of clothes before laying them on the bed. "You win _again,_ Ano…"

Anoel walked out after her, placing her own change of clothes on the corner of the bed before sliding her hands around Ly's waist to give her cheek a little peck. "I'm not counting that as a win. You just make it too easy sometimes. It _almost_ sounds like you do it on purpose."

"Yeah yeah…" Ly rolled her eyes, but didn't try to escape from the close hold.

"I'll try to stop if you want me to," Anoel offered, flashing a cheeky smile as she craned her head back to look at Ly's face.

"I'm not asking you to stop, you'd be boring then," Ly replied simply, her little smile returning as she returned a chaste kiss Ano soon leaned in to give her. "We should get changed though."

"We should," Anoel agreed, her cheeky smile turning into a happy grin before she moved her hands down to take a gentle hold of the hem of Ly's nightshirt. After a little prod, Ly rolled her eyes again and let Ano take her shirt off for her.

Something she did to silently ask for the favor to be returned… considering she was still too stiff to do it herself.

"Gee, whatever would you do without me if you can't get your own arms over your head," Ly chided teasingly, helping Anoel out of her own shirt in return.

"I'd end up burning the shirt off at that point," Anoel returned, her enwrapped black wings shifting slightly in the open air of the room as she reached down to grab the shirt Ly gave her.

Her feathers layered together and flattened out when they were melded like this, but she'd be lying if there wasn't a _little_ phoenix magic involved in getting them to the thickness of a skin-tight undershirt.

She liked to wrap them like a corset, as well. Something she taught Arex how to do.

It saved them from wearing bras with the tips of her wings acting as that chest support.

When she turned back, she found Ly's eyes roaming over her torso.

"What?" Ano asked, handing Ly the black shirt as she shifted her weight slightly.

"What's wrong, Ano? You know I can't resist when you open yourself up like that," Ly replied as her smirk turned coy.

Anoel's cheeks flared a little red at the return fire. "I deserved that."

Ly let the black shirt drop onto the foot of the bed as she pressed herself up against Ano. "And here I thought _you_ were the dominant sister. Standing there flustered like a crushing schoolgirl..."

Ano's breath sputtered out in a broken reply as Ly's warm skin pressed against her, the arms wrapping around her back pulling them flush together. "W-Who ever s-said I _was_?"

Ly's smirk widened as her eyes fell into a half-lidded gaze. "It didn't have to be said, but your actions _definitely_ portrayed it."

Anoel let her own gaze fall half-lidded as she wrapped her arms around the small of Ly's back.

"Maybe you're just seeing a new side of me, then," Anoel tried to offer, but she knew Ly could probably see through her.

"Amber eyes and a nervous disposition…" The thief replied slowly. "You've never been embarrassed about showing yourself to me before. So maybe I am seeing a different side."

Anoel drew her bottom lip between her teeth to bite it a little, drawing her bashful gaze back to meet with Ly's.

Ano knew why this felt so different. Before recently, she was always confident because she _knew_ it didn't matter.

That they couldn't ever _really_ be together.

But… now?

She wasn't so sure of that anymore.

And that scared her.

* * *

"Your sentiment is unwanted." My voice cut through the glimmering, natural-lit air of the small, homely clearing.

The smell of it was almost sickeningly sweet and fresh.

I was careful to avoid the clusters of colorful flowers growing there in the bright green grass, new colors appearing every year. The old ones all stuck around to keep it vibrant.

"But not unwarranted," Skyla voiced back, her own boots staying still just at the tree line. Part of me actually wondered why she didn't just barge in. "I followed you because I wanted to pay my respects. To… well, both of you."

"I'm not interested in your respect, but you can do what you want," I replied back, weaving my steps carefully through the array of white lilies and black roses clustered closely around the central obelisk.

"I'm still here to give it, if you're willing to let me…" she continued.

She was lucky I was still listening.

"Nothing's stopping you." I came to a standstill just at the front face of the pillar of black stone, slipping my hands into my pockets as I traced the engravings chiseled intricately into its glossy surface with my eyes.

"I am," she replied evenly, and I could practically feel as much as hear the brushing of her jacket as she crossed her arms over her chest. "I'd like your permission to let me get close."

"Well you don't have it," I cut back, reading one of the smaller inscriptions closer to the base. These were all things my old man carved out.

Little sayings he kept coming up with every year, when we visited.

' _Born into a world to meet a family undeserving of her love.'_

Seemed the words were still agreeable, even now.

"Then I ask _her_ if I can get close," Skyla continued. The fleeting wind wrapping around the cover of her jacket shifted as she moved her weight to her other leg.

"This isn't that kind of world, shorty," I called back, my eyes flicking over to another inscription.

' _The only one of us with the heart to raise a family.'_

He wasn't wrong.

"But it can be, can't it?" Skyla wondered aloud, bringing my gaze away from the inscriptions now and to the top of the obelisk, following its pyramidal peak as it touched the clear sky.

"If I give you _permission_ , will you stop talking?" I asked, watching the way the glossy stone glimmered, crested by the sun.

The girl's shoulder quietly pressed against the trunk of a tree before she voiced her response. "Only for a little while."

That was all I wanted. "Fine."

The gentle bristle of grass beneath the soles of her boots padded into the clearing now as I glanced back, watching her walk the same path I did to get close to the obelisk.

Apparently, she had a good memory and ability to mimic.

And an astounding ability to actually _be quiet_ for once.

As cautious as my eyes were, they finally stopped tracking her movements as she came to a silent halt just next to me, my gaze slowly switching back to the obelisk. I didn't know if she actually _wanted_ to pay her respects, or just settle her curiosity about me.

She seemed insistent to keep pursuing the latter.

But her eyes didn't seem to shine in the same intrigue I noticed in them from earlier. They were darker, losing the glistening, amethyst luster they held. Instead, they portrayed misty, hazy depths of a dark purple charoite.

A color less contrasting from the clothes she wore.

As those eyes slowly began to trace the engravings of inscriptions lining the front face of the stone, my own found their way back to empty space just further up.

A smooth surface glimmering with sunlight, and devoid of any etchings or scratches.

Guess I needed to keep the tradition going, even if it lost its meaning. Sorry if I'm not as poetic as you, old man.

I reached my gloved hand forward and rested my fingers against Iridelia's obelisk. A faint trickle of lime green light passed over the smooth stone I gazed at in a momentary flash, before etched lettering began to appear in glowing rays on its surface.

' _Wherever you two are, I'm sorry I won't be joining you.'_

The light faded back into the stone, my fingers falling away from its smooth surface to hang loosely back at my side. I meant what I wrote.

I didn't really have any plans for what came next for me. I only really have one goal. And once I achieve it, there wasn't really much solace left to find.

None that I can see, anyway.

"Did you write all these?"

Did she _honestly_ think I'd just _forget_ about her word of silence?

"Why are you talking?"

"Some of them are really heartfelt," Skyla spoke softly, fingers tracing some of the intricate phrases my old man wrote.

What the hell was she trying to say?

"Most of them were written by my dad," I responded, eyeing her as she brushed her hand tenderly down the words in the stone, reading them as she went.

"Is your father making you go to Beacon?" she asked curiously, and I couldn't of hit the nail _any harder_ right on the head if I tried. Drive the stake right in there.

He was the _only_ reason why I even cared.

"Something like that," I answered, wary of where her touch was going as it reached the end of the phrase she was interested in.

"I'm sorry for your losses…"

I don't need your sorrow. "You can stop talking again now."

"Don't wanna."

"Well you're _insufferable_ , you know that?" I asked, wondering if her thick head could translate _simple words_ in her native tongue.

"Don't care. I'm here for you." Skyla turned to me and held out her arms, offering me a hug.

If you dangle those limbs out there like that for long enough…

I _will_ break them.

"Go away."

"No."

I glared and she just opened her arms wider, looking expectant.

If she wanted me to break them that bad, she could've asked.

But both of our heads turned to a padding of four footfalls touching the grass at the other side of the clearing, muffled by fur and the sound of the bustling wind.

Icy blue predator eyes gazed back at us from the tree line, the figure of a white lion glowing in the light of the sun as it stepped out into the clearing. Something black and _exuding_ a mixture of poisonous black and dark green mist clenched in its large maw.

"Oh my god… a grimm kitty…"

I placed my hand on Skyla's face and pushed her away, stepping around the obelisk to make my way over to the white Dremoha. "What is that?"

A desolate, low-toned reverberal growl slipped out from around the crystal between its teeth before it leaned its head down, placing the mist-pouring object onto the grass.

Every blade the poison touched turned black, a corruption that spread slowly through the ground in a blackening circle around it.

"Dust?" Skyla's voice came from behind me, but my eyes were fixed on the energy _leaking enmasse_ from the crystal at my feet.

"You found another Core… didn't you…?" I asked aloud, bending down to wrap my fingers around the deathly cold crystal nestled in its nest of black, softly eroding grass and dirt.

The flowers the corruption touched wilted and died, drifting into the wind. I had to force aura into the ground to revert the spreading of that deathly reach and bring life back into the wildlife, even after I removed the crystal from where it rested.

When I glanced back to the face of the lion who carried it here, he simply lowered his head in a confirming, concerned nod. His white mane and fur trailed in wispy frost as he brought his eyes to the girl behind me, then to my own.

"Show me."

* * *

Arex rolled over beneath the covers of her shared bed, the tip of her ebony wing slipping out from beneath the blanket to hang from the newly bought foam mattress.

Her arms curled up as she brought her legs in, head falling from the pillow to rest by her loosely closed fingers.

A subtle warmth shifted from over her other wing, the small movement stirring her enough to slowly crack her eyes open with a half-lidded gaze to see what moved.

Kit's sleeping frame was curling up in the crook of her wing, nestling herself into Arex's feathers before coiling her tails around herself again.

She just looked like a little ball of fur now.

Arex smiled softly at that, rolling over again to peer toward the window.

The sun was just rising.

She took a moment to wonder how long she wanted to stay like this, eyes roaming back to Kitsuki again before deciding she didn't want to wake the kitsune just yet.

This was probably the most she's slept over this past week.

A little blue light appeared on the bedside table a few minutes after, looking active as usual as she cleared her throat.

Or pretended to, at least.

"Ray's leaving for the Vault today. I'm here to give the obligatory invitation for him, just in case you wanted to see what you missed out on," The AI said informatively as she donned a warm smile.

Arex didn't move for a few seconds, just watching Kit's tails softly flick and twitch in the kitsune's sleep for a few more seconds before nodding.

"I'd love to. And I have all day too," Arex replied quietly, pushing herself up into a sitting position. "Classes don't start back up until tomorrow."

Her weekend felt weirdly long…

But that may have only been because of how much happened in it.

And how much changed.

"When's he leaving?"

"After breakfast, he's still getting ready. I'll spare the details," GHOST replied casually. "I'll see you soon, Arex."

The phoenix gave a little smile at that and nodded, brushing her disheveled hair behind her ear. "Yeah. See you soon."

After GHOST disappeared, Arex carefully extracted her wing from beneath Kitsuki's sleeping form without waking her. She wanted to let the kitsune sleep for now, especially if Ray didn't grant her request to bring her along.

She didn't want to wake her up just to tell her she couldn't go…

So Arex silently climbed out of bed and moved to the closet the two of them filled with the clothes they packed. She quickly threw on a set of casual attire, slipping into a pair of black short-shorts and a thin olive sweater to throw over it.

Being in the Vault actually made her comfortable enough to go out like this, considering it'd only really be GHOST who sees her while inside.

She did mind a little that Ray was going to see her like this, but she marked it off due to her doubting he'd see it for long.

She'd seen him in a towel anyway.

Her being a little more free with her clothes shouldn't be too much of a bother.

As soon as she had her shoes on, she slipped quietly out of the room with her scroll in hand. The new CPU chip was installed last night, replacing her old one.

She didn't mess around with its processing speed too much, but it was _fast_. That much was easy to find out.

The rest of its capabilities… she'd have to experiment with.

For now though, she needed to find Ray.

And the first place she started moving toward, once in the hall, was the living area, where the kitchen was.

Ray was sat by the breakfast bar, quietly minding his own business as he ate his cereal and went through his scroll.

The rest of the room was empty.

Save for Seyda asleep on the couch again.

The phoenix quietly made her way into the room, moving to the opposite side of the bar from Ray to turn the box of cereal around to see what it was.

After a moment, she pushed away and grabbed her own bowl, pulling the milk from the fridge to pour herself a small serving to eat before heading out.

"Can I… ask you something?" Arex voiced, standing with her arms on the counter in front of him, filled bowl resting before her.

His eyes fixed their gaze on her for a moment before he quirked his eyebrow in curiosity. "Sure."

Arex pursed her lips for a moment as she dipped her spoon into her cereal, falling into her usual stance of crossing one foot over the back of her heel behind her. "It's more of a request, actually."

"What is it?" Ray asked, his eyes switching to her untouched cereal for a moment before returning to her face.

She took a short breath, letting go of her spoon as she met his gaze, then immediately broke it. "I'd like to bring Kitsuki with me to the Vault."

The phoenix bit her lip before hastily adding the conditions Ly told her to tack on.

"I promise she won't touch anything if you don't want her to. I'll be keeping a close eye on her… if you'd let me."

He stared at her for a few, awkwardly tense moments, long enough for the phoenix to begin to regret asking the question before he gave her an answer.

"What do you want her there for?"

His voice was still as neutral as it was before, but he asked his question slowly.

That actually scared her a little more than if he'd lashed out at her, which was kind of what she was expecting in the first place.

But… she was glad he didn't.

"I… hate leaving her alone," Arex muttered honestly, drifting her gaze back to him before lowering it. "Especially since I'll be spending a lot of time at the Vault."

Another moment of silence passed before he formulated his response.

"Keep her where you can see her at all times."

A building pent up breath immediately left Arex's lips at that, eyes snapping back to his in some amount of relief and excitement.

"Don't let her touch anything that looks even remotely dangerous. And make sure she doesn't eat or drink outside level 2, except in the case where delicate electronics are not susceptible to waterlogging or particulate contamination."

The phoenix quickly nodded to all of the above, just happy she'd be able to bring Kit with her. "I'll keep her in line. And she won't leave my sight either, I promise."

"Good. We leave in an hour, shower, change your clothes, whatever you need to do," Ray instructed calmly. "Just make sure you're ready, or you'll have to wait for the next transport."

Arex had already done _most_ of the above, but she figured a shower would be nice. She'll just slip in and out of the clothes she'd just thrown on to do so.

That, and she'll need to wake Kit up to get her ready too.

"Thank you, Ray," Arex quipped, giving a happy nod before pushing away from the counter and starting for the hallway.

"Your bowl."

"R-Right." Arex quickly backtracked and grabbed her cereal to take with her, disappearing down the hall to enter her room again.

She took a small bite of her breakfast before resting the bowl down on the dresser, leaving it there to make her way over to Kit's side of the bed.

The kitsune hadn't moved much, save for curling further into her warm tails after Arex's warmth left the bed.

It was a routine for them at this point, though. For Kit to sleep on Arex's wing.

In fact, Arex was pretty sure she laid Kit down first before going to sleep herself a little while later.

Kit must've pulled her wing out to sleep on at some point after that.

But with a small, excited smile, Arex gently nudged Kitsuki's slim shoulder to wake her up a little, lightly pinching her closest ear like usual to draw Kit out of her slumber.

When those golden-orange eyes opened and Kit rolled over, peering up at Arex, the phoenix just smiled and sat on the edge of the bed.

"Wanna see where I disappeared to yesterday?"

* * *

We followed padded steps wreathed in ice through the forest of Sanus, making our way south. Each step chilled the forest ground, the very air we passed through growing frigid as every tree and root glimmered in a thin layer of spanning white frost.

A crystalline hum crackled in the air with every passing second as the lion's energy seeped into the atmosphere, distilling the world and taking away its color.

His energy was running more rampant than usual. For as long as I've known him, the ice imbued inside him never spanned out like this so idly.

He was on edge.

It took something bigger than a Dremoha to make him worry.

Especially for one as powerful as him.

"We're nearing the coast," Skyla spoke up, an oceanic breeze starting to sift through the leaves. Her hand lifted to keep her brown bangs out of her face, but her eyes were switching between three places.

The horizon beyond the trees, the dark crystal still seeping mist in my hand, and the white lion leading the way at our front.

Three points of interest she hadn't asked about yet.

"And a watery graveyard," I replied coldly. If the Core was down there, it would've been a fitting place for it to reside.

Skyla's gaze slowly tracked back to me. Of course that'd make her curious. "Down where?"

"Kerillor's grave," I answered, glancing toward her for a moment before bringing my eyes back to the lion walking ahead of us. "There _used_ to be a Life Core that resided beneath the island, which bled into its water sources and plantlife. One of the reasons why its goods and products held special properties."

"Didn't know there was a populated island down south…" Skyla replied, an obvious unsureness in her voice. "And you mentioned a 'Core' again, like I'm supposed to know what that is."

"Focal point of where a particular Dust type is naturally generated. You know, the places where the veins of the stuff come from," I said, trying to be as patronizing as possible.

For her benefit, of course.

"And I said 'used to be' for a reason," I continued. "The island got destroyed by a grimm before your generation."

"Just the one?"

"That's all it took," I muttered. And to be honest, I think it was after the Core the island housed. Omegas tended to crave energy like that.

"So… why would two Cores be in the same place? The island didn't show signs of the second one, did it?" Skyla asked.

I would've insulted her in some way. Or berated her. Unfortunately, she voiced what I was actually wondering myself.

"It didn't. Just an abundance of life and prosperity," I returned, slowly bringing the crystal in my hand up to gaze down at it. "The land didn't ooze with _death_."

These Cores were polar opposites from one another. Their energies would clash. No way in _hell_ would the two ever exist in the same place naturally.

Not unless the Omega _dragged_ it there. But they weren't powerful enough to do that.

"That came from a Death Core then." Skyla's eyes dragged down to where my own gaze stared, watching wisps of poisonous color slither out around my pale fingers.

"Unfortunately, it seems so."

Cores always held some sort of reigning, overwhelming impact on the environment around them.

Most were obvious. That Life Core turned an island into a _breeding ground_ of life. In its people, its trees, even its water its life drank from.

Lightning was equally as obvious. Lightning energized the ground, and in some deep crevices of Remnant, infected Grimm that wandered through the area with its energy. Imbuing them with lightning.

But Death…? That corrupted the life around it. Biological beings of _any_ kind were affected by its seeping energy.

Grimm and Humankind alike. And everything in between.

My gaze drifted away from the crystal in my hand, casting to Skyla for a moment before watching a trickle of mist seep out and try to reach for her.

Only to disperse halfway. Its phatasmal shape almost looked like a thin, grasping arm before it vanished.

Death devoured life. Putting those two Cores together…

Nothing should've been smart enough to do that. Or dumb enough to even try.

"Do me a favor," I stated, watching Skyla's eyes flick up to mine for a moment in recognition. "Hold this."

I tossed the crystal her way, countless little wisps immediately reaching out of it in a poisonous swamp of grasping fingers as the deadly gem flipped through the air.

I needed to know what this thing did to humans with corruptible aura.

So seeing its effects firsthand needed to be done.

But a crystalline clang rung out just as the crystal was in reach of Skyla's shoulder, knocking the Dust out of the air and sending it into the clenching maw of the white lion pressing its paws into the ground ahead of us.

A glower narrowed his crystal blue eyes, poison softly billowing from the crystal clasped in his mouth again as he fixed me with his glare.

"What?" I asked, glancing down to the small shard of ice he used to deflect the toss. "Can't blame me for looking for answers."

Deep, narrow eyes turned away before he began his methodical walk again, keeping the crystal in his clutches.

Fine. If you wanted to carry it, you should've said so.

"Trying to sacrifice me?" Skyla asked, voice almost sounding insulted as she hugged her arms and looked at me.

Tried and failed. _Unfortunately_. "It's exactly what it looked like."

We made it to the coast a little while after that. A blue ocean sat between us and the rest of the world, a distant island residing too far, far out to see beyond what normal people could obverse from here. And if you looked far enough, you could just make out the ridge of Solitas over the crest of blue.

But nobody could see that far anyway.

"So… are we swimming there?" Skyla asked. And so _wonderfully_ too, because now I have an excuse to throw her again.

"The destruction of Kerillor left a crater on the ocean floor. A black abyss." My eyes turned to her for a moment as I non-discretely grabbed her arm in a vice grip. "In other words, it's the newest, and _deepest_ , part of the ocean."

A resounding growl stopped my actions, my eyes turning to the lion again as he flicked his gaze back at me. The nearest wave ahead of him was in the middle of shattering from the clenched rumble alone.

"What's _your_ problem?" I asked, slowly letting go of Skyla's arm. The lion's eye eventually turned away, looking back to the ocean before its paws moved forward again, pressing into the sand.

The waves ahead of him began to die down, the tide beginning to grow still as his front paws met with the water at the shallowest part of the coast.

The crystal between his teeth hummed and resonated as it got closer to the water, bubbling it when he set it down, but that noise was drowned out under an encroaching and _drowning_ presence of ice starting to surge from the white lion touching the water ahead.

An ear-piercing wave of _freezing_ , _screeching_ ice _ripped_ into the air in the few seconds that passed before he tensed the muscles in his legs and craned forward, _breaking_ the air and atmosphere with a sonic roar.

The shearing screech of ice erupted from his body and cast outward, splitting and _shoving_ the water in his way aside before freezing the forming walls of the oceanic _trench_ he just burrowed for us.

Its slit-like, icy reach spanned down along the ocean floor and into the distance, giving us an icy pathway to walk on.

"H-He… he parted the ocean…" Skyla cracked in a broken voice, trying to figure out how to use _words_ again.

Oh, what a _studious_ observation.

Here's a sticker.

"Show off," I grumbled, getting a satisfied shake of a white mane from the lion before he picked the crystal back up and started heading down the split path he made.

I felt Skyla's glance fall on me again as I followed, keeping behind the lion.

The incessant girl caught up eventually.

It was times like these, though, where I actually respected the lion's power. You could _hear_ the weight of the ocean behind his thin layer of enforced ice.

Everywhere you looked, you could see out into the dark, dreary depths through his veil. And every step we took not only _preserved_ the coral we occasionally walked on, but kept living things in a stasis of ice until the ocean could sweep back in again when we were done.

And to do it on this scale without flaw, it kind of made me want to punch one of the walls and watch it all come crumbling back in.

Not like it'd do much with him here.

After a couple hours passed though, there was _one_ more thing I noticed as we ventured further, and deeper, into the ocean's massive clutches.

"Weird…" I murmured, looking back for a moment before tracing the wall.

"W-What's weird?" Skyla asked with a slight quiver in her voice.

What was that? A _quiver_ , per chance?

" _Somebody's_ not being annoying for once," I elaborated, shooting her a glance as we progressed.

She didn't have an immediate retort to that. She opened her mouth and was _about_ to say something, but quickly closed it.

Guess it wasn't everyday you saw what a Dremoha at this stage could do.

He was the only one there, after all. Balancing on the _threshold_ between ascending to Omega class, and staying a Dremoha.

Ridiculously enough, he chose the latter. He prefered earnest loyalty over forced fealty in his followers. To him, Omegas only knew one thing.

Power.

And that included power over Grimm.

Guess he didn't want that.

"It's just… s-something feels off…" Skyla eventually voiced out.

Of course something felt off.

We were walking to the embodiment of Death in its energized form.

She was actually starting to look sickly in the face, now that I looked at her.

Wait. Her aura was draining.

"We're getting close," I murmured, looking down to my glove for a moment before channeling aura around my forearm and into my palm. I used that to place a solid hand on the girl's shoulder, pulsing a temporary green light around her entire frame to see if I could stop that poison from progressing.

The closer we got to this Core, the stronger that would get.

"Thanks…"

Damnit. The quiver was gone from her voice. Why couldn't that have stayed, at the very least? It gave her a reason not to talk.

For some reason though, despite that, the girl stayed quiet.

Even as we progressed deeper for another half hour.

Which made sense. We were nearing 4,000 meters beneath the surface now. The sheer weight of the water against the two walls of ice stopping it was immeasurable by now on this kind of scale. Every _centimeter_ must've been experiencing the entire weight of the ocean.

And you could _hear_ it at every step of the way. The deep, overbearing _moan_ of the ocean and its inhabitants. Creaking and groaning, thuming with pulses of far away vibrations.

It _exuded_ that feeling of total, overwhelming desolation. Of absolute isolation. That in a single moment, the wall of water behind that ice could come _crashing_ in and swallow you whole in a very deep, dark, and watery abyss.

I loved that feeling.

I would've enjoyed it more, at least, if we all didn't slow in our step as a howling, distant noise vibrated against the icy shell beside us.

I wasn't a fisherman or a diver. And I _definitely_ wasn't an oceanologist. But that was unmistakably the noise of something _big_ drifting nearby.

Big, and heading our way.

"That's… not a promising sound," Skyla stated, observing the obvious as always.

"No, not at all," I replied. With the weight of the water around us, I wouldn't be able to keep Skyla from being crushed by the pressure alone on her body.

My aura wasn't built for that.

I should've kept throwing her.

"If that thing gets close, will it break through?" she asked hesitantly, eyes gazing out into the shadowy depths beside her.

"That depends," I answered, reaching over to lightly touch one of the cold walls dividing the ocean next to us. "If it's _really_ big, then most likely."

I was being patronizing on purpose.

Thing was, though. Part of me already realized…

We were never making it to the center of this crater. Kerillor's destruction symbolized two things for scale.

It was a display to the world of the sheer power of an Omega. But it wasn't just that. That alone wouldn't brush aside the entire _weight_ of the ocean and swallow an entire island's landmass in its entirety, and the land _around it_ , in one move.

This thing was feeding off of that Life Core.

And now it had a Death Core too.

"Contact." My instincts brought that word out of my lips without even thinking of it, the two of us and the lion slowing to a sudden halt as I kept my eyes on the wall to our left.

The opposite wall the previous noise came from.

It was slow. Methodical in every move it made. And worse, it was _silent_ in its approach. It went _entirely_ unnoticed until now.

And it was a wonder _how,_ too.

Because a slow, creeping shadow _loomed_ over the entirety of the wall beside us. _Hazed_ in blue and black from the ocean and the light that crept down from above and through the thin shield of ice between _it_ and _us_.

Its shape engulfed all field of view you could even see of it, running down the length of the ice wall. 318 meters. Or just about, from what I could make of its silhouette.

The ice was keeping me from sensing what it _was_.

All I did know, was that it had a shark fin.

And I think that's all I _needed_ to know as it leaned over and started pressing against the ice, cracking it immediately.

"Time to go." I swept Skyla up just as water began to _pour_ into the icy crevice, flooding down in an icy, encroaching tsunami as I grabbed the girl and _ran_.

A blur of white kept pace at my right as the wall beside us chipped and cracked. The sheer speed of the ice cracking dwarfed our own, shattering in a web of misting crystal shards that _blew_ by us.

Water slicked the ground, but immediately froze over again as the lion got in front of us and re-froze the path.

The shadow followed us, moving with an abnormal swiftness to juxtapose its size. It darted along the cracked wall, the continent we came from not even in _view_ yet before all hope of seeing it was gone as the colossal creature slammed into the fragmenting sheet of ice and broke into the air keeping us breathing.

Poisonous mist _plumed_ down in front of us as the creature passed overhead, blocking out what little sun we had just as the ocean behind the wall it came from started crashing in.

Half a maw of teeth and tendon _barred_ aggressively as it crashed across to the opposite wall, breaking through that as well to collapse both in the same movement.

It was a shark, alright. Its skin was pitch black, eroding and _pouring_ with the same poisonous energy that seeped from the crystal the white lion found. Plates of white were scattered over its upper half, and spines of white bone trailed down its back as if it once had a spinal fin that reached down its entire body.

But now it was void of flesh.

The fin that reached highest on its central back was just _bone_ , its flesh entirely eroded away, and the same detail I noticed in the silhouette earlier. Most of its fins and skin had holes through them, as if the water itself was eating away at its flesh.

It was a Dremoha that inhabited this part of the ocean. It had to be. The only other reason why it must've been here was if the Omega _drew_ it here.

Which meant there were bound to be more.

"It's now or never, Icy!" I yelled over the crashing water and ice, the two walls of water ahead of us crashing together to seal away our exit.

A crystalline growl broke out across the oceanic collapse as the white lion dug its claws into the ground and turned around, slamming his head into my legs to flip me over it and land me on its back.

I was half-tempted _not_ to hold Skyla as securely as I did, but I didn't drop her.

The girl was clinging to me anyway.

We had nowhere to go but up. And our friendly lion finally decided to pull out his pearly white wings and get us out of there.

He was aggravatingly a fan of the dramatics.

Now I just had to wonder how he got that piece of crystal to begin with.

* * *

Anoel _really_ didn't know what to look for in a dress.

She'd spent the past half an hour sifting through all kinds of color, material, skirt length, and size she could get her hands on in the several shops of Vale's mall.

Thankfully, Ly was just as lost as she was. So, despite them sticking together, _neither_ of them found a dress they actually liked yet.

Anoel really only had one thing in mind at this point.

Just get something she'd like. Something she'd look good in.

Something Anoel would be more than happy to look at.

But even those few, simple criteria were hard to come by.

So as she plucked another dress from its hanger for the umpteenth time, she didn't hesitate to let herself get a little distracted as a little commotion started going on at the cash register.

"You're flattering yourselves if you think this is worth 168,000 lien."

"Miss, the dress has gems in it that account heavily toward the total price, that's the lowest you'll find it."

Oh, that was Ly at the register making all that ruckus? Anoel's hands drifted over the material between her fingers, eyes drifting to the noise to see Lylac standing at the glass counter before the store clerk.

She didn't look too happy.

She never did when she found people trying to sell fake gems.

"It's silk with _glass beads_ , this isn't even worth _30,000_."

Anoel sighed and put the soft dress back, making her way over to the two by the front with a pensive press of her lips.

Usually this would amuse her, but she was a little annoyed with how long this shopping was taking.

She just wanted to have a nice evening with Ly…

Did they really have to get dressed up for that?

"Miss…" the register attendee looked a little nervous under the harsh, unwavering glare Ly was giving her, visibly swallowing at the shimmering cerulean glow of the girl's eyes. "I-It has genuine citrine g-gems…"

Lylac scoffed at the claim, rolling her eyes. "You want to see _citrine_?"

She placed her hand in her pocket and pulled out a large amber gem, glistening in the well-lit store. " _This_ is citrine. What you're trying to sell me is _glass._ I am _not_ paying a small fortune for a rip-off."

"Then don't," Anoel spoke up from behind Ly, sighing to herself as she walked up to the gem-thief's side and gave the store clerk a small smile. "Go ahead and remove this thing's tag. I'm sure you didn't know it was false advertising."

Ano kept her voice soft and apologetic, but she was more directing that toward Ly.

"Most people aren't critical gemologists with a keen eye for the real deal," Anoel continued, slipping her arm around Ly's waist to pull her against her. "Especially people this beautiful."

Ly's growing temper melted away as she sighed, closing her eyes for a moment before reopening them to look at the clerk. "I'm taking this dress, but I want the 68,000 knocked off. Else this store earns itself a very bad reputation."

When the clerk's eyes transitioned to Anoel, the info-broker just gave the girl a soft smile, but one that held a _very real_ backing to that threat Ly just made.

"I have the kingdom at my fingertips, honey," Anoel chided innocently, slipping her scroll out of her pocket to flash it to the clerk. "Just sell the dress for what it's really worth."

Little needed to be said as the clerk did as asked, and Anoel ushered Ly out of the shop soon after.

"Are you sure you wanted to buy something you grimace every time you look at?" Anoel asked lightly once they were back in the mall's central area, eyes peering into the bag Ly clutched in delicate fingers. "I'm happy with just a simple black dress."

"I'm replacing the glass with real stuff as soon as I get back…" Ly murmured in reply. "The dress itself was just a canvas."

Anoel lightly smiled at that, letting her gaze fall back on Ly's pearlescent eyes. "I hope it's worth putting me in a dress that expensive then."

Especially something twenty, maybe forty times more expensive than the clerk tried to sell it for.

"It won't be expensive enough for you. If we're going on a fancy date, we might as well look the part," Ly replied softly as her eyes shifted into a pink hue, a little smile forming on her lips.

Ano's eyes seemed to reflect that color as the info-broker smiled brightly. "Ly, I'd be happy with anything you'd give me. Hell, I'd feel like the most priceless gem in the world if you gave me nothing but yourself."

The info-broker donned a much more affectionate smile before holding up a slim finger, looking away for a moment to peer back into the store they came from.

"I _do_ think I found a nice dress for you inside though. I'll be right back."

Without really letting Ly say anything, Anoel dipped back into the doors to come back out with a bag about a minute later.

A little purposeful sway in her steps as she made her way back to the lilac-tipped blonde.

"That was quick, but I guess I shouldn't be too surprised with you," Ly commented lightly as she took a moment to look at the bag in Ano's hand before her eyes locked with the info-broker's.

Ano just moved the bag behind her back and grinned, leaning forward just slightly to peer up at Ly from beneath the rim of her hat. " _Just like you_ , this is a canvas. It's a soft blue right now, but I'll be adding some pretty pink to it to match your eyes while you work on gemming up that black dress. I picked up a thing or two while I worked under Niro's dad."

Sewing was one of them. Especially since she had to sew her own shirts to make sure they accommodated her wings.

She figured it'd be much more lien-efficient to _reuse_ a shirt than shred it each time she wanted to fly.

"Sounds good to me." Ly's smile brightened as her eyes stayed focused on Ano's, eyebrows furrowing slightly. "Hey… do you mind if we get some donuts? I saw a store with them earlier and I've been craving them for a little while now."

Ly almost sounded distracted when she asked that.

Anoel's reflective pink eyes averted to look for the store in question, not noticing how carefully Ly watched her face as she tried to find the storefront.

"Sure, I can go for a few sweets. Wanna share?" Anoel asked, bringing that unknowingly bright gaze back to Lylac as she straightened back up.

"I was thinking the exact same thing, what a coincidence…" Ly replied coyly, her smirk widening.

"Sounds good. Though, we might as well head somewhere to grab lunch after, then finish up the dresses back at the apartment," Anoel replied, reaching forward to slip her hand into Ly's free one. "It'll be like the pre-date to the fancy dinner date."

"Works for me," Ly said, eyes still distractedly gazing into Anoel's own.

Ano didn't know what she was staring at.

* * *

 **Erm, I couldn't help it. The reviews were bugging me. I added a parallel arc involving Niro to help lead up to the upcoming big moment, even if it'll take longer to get there now. That way he's anchored more, and I can have an excuse to play with his character.**

 **I've been struggling to find ways to bring him in because he genuinely** _ **does not care**_ **what's been happening to the other members of his team. Save for Ano's endeavors.**

 **She's the main reason why he's been staying away, because he doesn't quite know if he can hold himself back when she gets herself hurt again.**

 **It seems they're both acutely aware of that now.**

 **Anyway, gonna be working in more Niro scenes during this timeframe.**

 **Don't bite me.**

 **Also, cute fluff is cute. It's adorable how Ano and Ly don't know what a date is, or how it works.**

 **For now,** _ **Favorite**_ **and** _ **Follow**_ **.**

 **I look forward to seeing** _ **REVIEWS**_ **for this. You'll be introduced to a LOT of concepts of mine. Feel free to give me your thoughts.**

 **Cya XP**

* * *

 **Omake:** _by Xera Stark_

* * *

"Awwww~ Who's a big kitty! You are! Yes you are!" Skyla cooed, throwing herself arms and all at the big white liony cat as she rubbed her face into its mane and fur. "So cute~!"

"You know he's Grimm, right…?" Niro asked, watching as Skyla brushed her hand down the lion's spine and tried to get him to sit down.

"So cuuuuuuuute~!"

Lime green eyes narrowed as an icy blue gaze met it, an insultingly amused look in them that brought an immediate scoff out of Niro.

"You could at least _act_ Grimm."

A deep, rumbling purr slipped out into the clearing as the white lion curled up into the ground, closing its eyes beneath the rubbing and scratching fingers of the girl cuddling him.

 _An embarrassment to Grimmkind._

"Unbelievable…" Niro muttered, tugging at his hat as she kicked the crystal on the ground into his hand and moved past the two. "When you two are _done_ , come find me. I'll be killing trees in the meantime."

"Who's a big, adorable lil kitty? That's you! Yes, that's you cutie~!"

"Kill her… _please_."

Its purring got louder.

"So cute!"


	50. Fabrication

Rogue Huntsman

Fabrication

«»

"How are you two dry already?"

Skyla flicked her wet hands at the leaves of some nearby brush, scattering water droplets into the bushes before patting at her leggings.

The lion and I stared at her for a few long seconds as she kicked at the ground and shook her hands out again.

"Because we're actually competent with what we can do," I offered, catching an annoyed look from her.

" _Come on!_ I'm soaked!" Skyla flailed her arms around again and tried to ring out her hair. "What's a girl gotta do to get un-wet?"

"Stop being annoying for one thing," I replied. She immediately gave me a sour look, almost like being this wet and cold was really that much of a hassle. "Why don't you do it yourself?"

"Because I don't want to _microwave_ myself!" She flailed again.

Part of me just wanted to see her suffer. "You're just trying to get out of doing the work yourself."

She looked appalled, and proceeded to flail again. "N-No I'm not!"

"Then I can shake you out if you'd like," I said. My voice was starting to lose some of its edge as she gave me another wide-mouthed look of insult, then held up her arms in invitation to be picked up.

"Try me," she challenged.

Looks like I was snapping her arms after all-

A silencing, concussive roar whipped Skyla's hair back as she snapped her eyes closed. My own turned to see the lion standing tense beside me, paws digging into the roots and dirt as he ripped the cold temperature out of the air.

Whatever swirling, chill breeze that was settled in the area around Skyla vanished, replaced with a flash of heat and a gale of wind from the lapse in air pressure.

Then Skyla was dry. Frazzled, but dry.

Crystal blue eyes looked up at me as the lion snapped his maw shut, giving me a narrow gaze.

"What?"

He huffed and shook his mane, the tense muscle in his shoulders relaxing before he slowly turned around. The crystal we still had sat encased in a block of white ice behind him. It kept the poison inside it at bay.

For now, at least.

"Thank you, kitty!" An unceremonious fwop and a thwomp cast into the air as Skyla's small frame slapped into the side of the large, white lion's body.

She immediately buried her hands into his mane and fur, smiling widely as she nuzzled him.

Aside from the usual death sentence that tended to follow touching him like this, it really displayed their height differences. Standing the way he was, the lion was still taller than Skyla, and several times the toned bulk a normal lion would be able to muster.

He wasn't hulking or bulging, just chiseled and intimidating in his size. Something that hasn't changed much, since we met.

"You two-" That height difference began to lessen and I watched in disappointment as he slowly started to lower himself to the ground, curling his legs in to rest on his side.

Then he started to purr. _Smugly_.

"Oh shut up," I growled, stepping past Skyla as she scratched and cooed at the deadly lion on the ground.

* * *

"As you instructed, I've prepared the prototype. But I strongly advise not taking it with you until we can solve the power management first," GHOST spoke informatively to Ray as he, Arex, and Kitsuki entered the elevator leading to level 1. "Without a final distribution solution, I can't guarantee it'll function as you need it to."

Ray sighed as he waited for the two girls to settle behind him before pressing an elevator button ahead of him. "I've already told you that I'll figure it out. _All_ I need to know is can it move yet?"

The elevator doors hissed shut before it began its descent, gradually picking up speed.

"It's mobile, yes, but not completely functional," GHOST replied begrudgingly. "It'd just be _easier_ to have that problem solved first."

Ray rolled his eyes as he shook his head. "I'll figure it out. Quit worrying."

It sounded like he was a live testing kind of guy. Someone who prefered to work on trial and error than prediction and looking ahead.

Arex made a mental note to ask GHOST about what he was working on later. But for now, she was busy hiding a little smile as the elevator descended faster.

It was at around the point where she'd start losing her footing, and she was already feeling her weight fade away as it was, so she cast an amused glance to Kit before taking the kitsune's hand.

Marigold eyes turned toward her curiously when she did that, only to widen a little at Arex's lightly drifting hair and smiling face.

Even the phoenix's hair held less mass than her own…

But Arex's grip tightened as the girl floated up from the elevator's speed, Kit quickly pulling the girl back down to the floor once she noticed it.

The little action drew an amused smile out of Arex as the kitsune stepped closer to her. To keep her down.

What she wasn't expecting Kit to do, though, was move into her side and wrap two slim arms tightly around Arex's frame.

To _really_ make sure the girl didn't float away.

Those arms didn't go away, even as the elevator doors opened on level 1.

It wasn't Arex's fault gravity affected her body differently. B-But she guessed she deserved this for not telling the kitsune ahead of time.

"Arex, I trust you enough to know you'll be fine to do what you want to," Ray said as he turned to look at her. "My advice to you is don't get lost, even though GHOST can help you find your way around. I have some stuff to do in the meantime."

The currently sheepish girl nodded her head, a little half-mindedly wondering why Kit hadn't let go yet.

"As for you," Ray added, his eyes fixing on Kitsuki. "Stay with Arex. And don't get yourself hurt. I don't need to deal with that right now."

When he finished speaking, he walked out of the elevator. The two inside watched him collect himself and pace down the white halls to an opening panel, revealing yet another elevator.

After the boy entered, he waved the girls off with a two-finger salute before the panel closed.

"O-Okay…" Arex said breathlessly, glancing down to Kit. Her marigold eyes were still staring at the hidden panel Ray just disappeared behind.

Arms still locked around her.

"You can let go now," Arex muttered, wiggling a little in the kitsune's hold.

Kit looked back at her, eyes gazing slightly up into Arex's. That only succeeded in Arex blushing a little and offering a meek smile.

Kitsuki reluctantly let go after that. She liked holding Arex.

It made her feel like she was protecting her.

Once Arex caught her breath, she turned ahead of them and quickly took Kit's hand again. The hold dispelled that disappointed look from the kitsune's face.

"Let's get going. I _really_ wanna start showing you around," Arex said, excitement in her voice.

Something Kit never really got to hear much of.

So her fox ears perked up as she nodded, smiling lightly as she caught sight of Arex's excited grin.

"You'll love it," the phoenix stated, leading Kit out of the elevator and straight down the hall. Kit noticed a little spring in her step.

She couldn't help but notice, finding herself watching Arex's face and the little actions she did in her growing excitement.

It was almost restless for the phoenix. In that subtle, adorable way.

The way she bounced on the balls of her feet as they walked, causing the ends of her raven hair to toss and drift in the soft wake of her movements. Or the way her focus seemed so narrowed, like she couldn't wait to reach the goal she was strolling toward.

Kit ended up watching Arex more closely than her actual surroundings. So, it was going to be easy to keep her hands to herself.

Especially since Arex was the only thing she wanted to stay near in here.

When they reached a T-junction in the hallway, though, the sound of soft, rapid footfalls quietly sounded from around the corner.

And Kit couldn't help but notice Arex's growing smile as they slowed down a little.

The soft footsteps grew louder before a balayage-blonde haired girl slid around the corner in her knee socks and short blue dress, smiling brightly as her gaze met Arex's.

"Hello!"

Arex's free hand rose in a tiny wave as Kit's eyes drew to the girl in front of them. The blonde was taller than the phoenix beside her.

But only by an inch.

So the kitsune had to look up just that _tiny_ bit more to meet the eyes of the new arrival. Someone four inches taller than herself.

Weird… the girl had GHOST's voice.

Kit wondered why.

"Are you _always_ just sliding around whenever you can?" Arex asked amusedly, Kit noticing the phoenix's gaze trailing down over the blonde's legs to her socks.

"It's fun to do when I'm running around. I like running," the girl responded happily. "It's like walking, but faster."

Kit's ear twitched as Arex actually giggled a little at that. Her marigold gaze turned up to catch Arex hiding an amused smile behind her hand with mirthful eyes.

It was cute.

"Anyway, Kit, meet GHOST. As in, the _official_ GHOST," Arex said, dropping her hand back down to her side and turning to Kit.

The kitsune turned back to the blonde in front of them, then met Arex's gaze again. Then turned it back to the blonde.

That wasn't GHOST.

GHOST was a small little pixie.

Not a girl taller than her.

A confused tilt of the kitsune's head formed as she stared, trying to put it all together.

"You may be more familiar with me like this," the girl said as she held out her hand. GHOST appeared on her palm, waving tinily but enthusiastically to the kitsune.

Why was this girl trapping GHOST in her hand like that?

Kit slipped her fingers free from around Arex's hand for just long enough to sign, still confused.

" _Pixies aren't supposed to be big."_

Both the girl, and the pixie in her hand smiled at the same time. "They're also not supposed to be sliding across polished floors wearing knee high socks."

Kit stared for another few long seconds before blinking silently. _"But… how did you get so big?"_

"I'm actually much bigger than this…" GHOST replied. "But, if it helps…"

The holographic avatar faded away before the physical GHOST approached the wall to Kit's left, holding out her hands as a small panel lifted away to reveal a tiny, physical GHOST.

The solid, pixie GHOST then leapt into the cupped hands of the bigger one. Leaving the blonde girl to walk back over to Kitsuki and hold her hands out to her.

"I can be smaller like you're used to."

Kit's eyes lit up at seeing GHOST standing proudly in the blonde's hands, situated at the ends of the girl's fingers as she looked at Kit.

The kitsune faintly smiled and held up her own, cupping them together. GHOST stepped onto Kit's hands with a little weight in her small, but light step. Making the new discovery even more real.

She looked just like her holographic form now.

So Kit was satisfied.

But after a moment, Kit turned her eyes to Arex, who was staring adoringly at her holding the little body of GHOST in her hands.

Kit wanted something… and was hoping Arex would be able to read it in her eyes.

She didn't want to put the pixie down to sign it.

After a few seconds, Arex just sighed and turned her attention to the blonde again.

"She wants to keep you. The little you."

The blonde smiled warmly at the phoenix. "Most of my bodies can't leave the Vault, but… that one can if she _really_ wants it. It just needs recharging every now and then."

Kit did want it, but after a few moments of staring at the little GHOST in her hands, she couldn't help but look back up with a new thing she wanted.

She quickly lifted her hands up to her head, letting GHOST step off between her ears to be able to sign something.

Then with a firm, unwaveringly indifferent face, Kit signed it.

" _I want a little Arex."_

The blonde girl looked at her before turning her eyes to Arex and scratching the back of her head, the phoenix herself locked up in an embarrassed, confused fluster.

"I _may_ have already gone and made one, actually…"

Kit's eyes grew bright with excitement as Arex's eyes went wide in disbelief, her fluster only getting worse.

"I got bored and thought it would be fun. To program a digital profile of you with all of your quirks and mannerisms into a basic, self-learning artificial intelligence…" she said awkwardly as she looked to Arex apologetically. "And… a scale model robot that happens to match your entire body, including wings down to a nanometer of accuracy…"

Arex's mouth fell open with an uncertain stare, before snapping it closed and just gaping at GHOST for a few long seconds.

"O-Okay…" the phoenix finally breathed out, completely at a loss of what she wanted to say. She didn't look offended at all.

Just… incredibly embarrassed.

And flattered.

" _I wanna see it,"_ Kit signed firmly, flicking her ears at either side of the little GHOST's body.

She soon felt small hands grasp at her ears and hold onto them, the small pixie sitting down on her head soon after. Kit didn't mind.

A small, almost _inaudible_ tapping could be heard coming from the large window to their right.

Kit's eyes immediately snapped to the noise as Arex almost hesitantly looked as well. The white fox watched more intently as a small figure ran along the sill on the outside of the window.

White tails immediately starting whipping about as she silently gasped, wanting to hold it.

A pair of miniature wings sprouted out from inside the little olive sweater the figure wore as a panel shifted open, making an entrance for the tiny girl as she flew up and inside the hallway. The little Arex landed on the palm of the blonde girl's hand.

"She's designed to mimic you to the best of her ability. And like that one there," she said as she pointed to GHOST sat on Kit's head. The small figure still held onto the kitsune's ears to keep steady, "she can leave the Vault, just needs to recharge herself every so often."

Kit was already making grabbing motions at the air in front of her for the little Arex. She _really_ wanted to hold her.

That only brought a stronger blush out of Arex as the real version herself dipped her chin a little, still at a loss of what to say.

"S-She's cute…" the phoenix muttered, eyeing up her smaller version. "If I'm allowed to say that."

"They say imitation is the highest form of flattery," the blonde idly commented, extending her palm out toward Kit as her grabbing motions grew more desperate. "I actually have one for all of the members. It's just something I do to pass the time… Little Ray keeps jumping off of things and breaking his legs though… It's getting annoying to keep fixing them."

Arex seemed to grimace at that, but Kit was smiling as the blonde let the little Arex hesitantly step into her hands.

Kitsuki immediately brought the little version of her partner up close to look at her, eyes focused in an adoring, observing gaze to take in all of the little Arex's details.

It… looked like a perfectly shrunk version of the phoenix.

Even the wings were duplicated accurately. Maybe even with the same number of feathers.

Though, Kit wondered if the blonde knew about the spots on Arex's wings that were sensitive.

So Kit reached a slim hand up and gently plucked the little Arex's wing out. Her touch fanned it outward before brushing the back of her knuckle against the interior crook of the smooth, black wing.

To her surprised delight, the little Arex blushed and tightened up a little in her stance, chin dipping just like Arex's did when she got flustered.

The real Arex was mortified, and blushing darker than the little figure in Kit's hands.

Kit was keeping her.

And nobody was going to stop her.

* * *

"What's his name?" Skyla asked, her sweet, _grating_ voice accompanied by a low, softly rumbling purr. She sat comfortably on the ground beside the resting lion, her scratching much light and tender compared to her excitement from earlier.

"He doesn't have one," I lied, watching her eyes flash in recognition of the false information. "You'll spoil him if you keep doing that."

"What? That sounds like he doesn't get enough of this," Skyla replied. Her brow knit in disappointment as she ran a hand down the length of his frosty white fur, her slim fingers disappearing into the ocean of white they glided through. "He should get more pets more often."

"He's _Grimm_ ," I stated bluntly. I wondered if that even fazed her. " _People_ don't take kindly to Grimm enough to reach out and pet one, let alone a wild lion."

She looked like she was contemplating something. For a long few seconds, her amethyst eyes watched the way his fur rolled beneath her passing hand. And I specifically noticed how she was mesmerized by the rise and fall of his breathing body beneath her touch. "But this one's different."

 _No shit._ "Most aren't white."

"Or self-serving," Skyla continued, her eyes rising to the lion's relaxed face. His smug look was gone. _Apparently,_ he didn't _want_ her to see it.

Just me.

"He doesn't act like other Grimm do," she added, reaching up to ruffle his mane. "How did you meet him? Do you know what tier he is?"

Great. All the questions she'd been building up over that last half a day were starting to come out. And I had every reason not to answer her.

But knowing what she'd sooner assume forced me to.

"He's a high-tier Dremoha. And he met me, not the other way around. Wasn't mutual either." I wasn't even a year old back then, so I didn't have a choice in the matter.

What kind of kid would actually _want_ to be raised by Grimm?

"How high-tier we talking?" Skyla asked.

"If the leisure stunt with the ocean wasn't enough showing off for him," I started, giving the lion my own sour look before I turned my gaze to the Death crystal encased in ice. "The only thing higher than him is an Omega."

"An Omega…" the girl muttered quietly, her fingers starting to slow slightly in their ministrations. Her touch was starting to grow distracted. "Are there any…? Omegas, I mean."

I almost scoffed at that. It was a loaded question, one society _really_ didn't want answered if the erasing of Kerillor's fall was anything to go by.

Humanity didn't _want_ the general public to know Omegas existed. They only wanted Dremoha to be common knowledge, but that didn't even include Dremoha at a tier even remotely close to the lion resting on his side in front of us.

No, apparently, that was too 'scary' and 'threatening' in its possible extinction-level destruction. Grimm fed on fear, after all.

The world felt that when the trade-island of Kerillor disappeared off the face of the planet. An Omega awoke, _pissed_ , and raised a red sun on the surface of the ocean to raze an island to the deepest trench of the sea. The streams of black polluting the scarlet sky was the _fear_ in the hearts of every civilization who witnessed the event.

Something that was _seen_ from every continent.

Fear like that, on a mass scale, could easily mark the end of any world. So, _obviously_ , the best course of action was to _lie_ to the masses and sweep the whole extinction of an _entire faunus race_ under the rug and burn the pages out of every history book that so much as made mention to the island.

Just like that, it was almost like Phoenix Faunus never existed…

And _boy_ did that piss a lot of people off.

The Great War was quick to follow as those tensions rose.

It's kind of funny, actually, knowing Arex and Anoel might be the last of their kind. And here they are trying to get between the legs of other girls.

Better hope some miraculous breakthrough happens in the scientific community to support _offspring_ for those kinds of relationships…

"Just one," I finally answered. As far as I knew of, the Omega that destroyed Kerillor was the _only_ one of its kind.

The world better _hope_ it was the only one.

It was enough to bring about the end of everything if it woke up again. It's had centuries to incubate with Dust Cores. And if I'm right, it's sitting pretty with both a Life Core and a Death Core down there, _soaking_ in that combined energy as it hibernates in Kerillor's grave.

Waking that up now… would be exponentially more devastating than when it awoke a century ago.

"If… the Omega fought your lion…" Skyla's voice fell soft, her hands going back up glistening white fur to settle in the thick mane just over the lion's shoulder. "Could he win?"

Could the lion win? If he fought with all his power?

"No."

Not even close.

* * *

Kitsuki's ears happily bounced on her head as two small, miniature figures circled the bases of her furry appendages.

Small hands rubbed through the fur of each one, Kit wondering if their intrigue would ever melt away enough for them to sit still.

But the constant ear massage was enough to keep her in a perpetual state of lulled bliss as she watched Arex and GHOST work.

"Okay, extend your wings for me please?" GHOST prompted Arex kindly. "Fully, if you don't mind."

Arex slowly did as asked, letting her wings fan out from where they were furled at her back. GHOST seemed intent to keep these short tests going.

This was an extension of the medical check from before, only, this one was more directed toward her anatomy.

After a few seconds, her outstretched wings reached their full wingspan. But she couldn't help but tip her gaze down with a faint blush at having them so open and in view.

She was so used to hiding them all the time.

Each one spanned about seven to eight feet in total length. And their thinner, sleeker appearance made them almost feel weightless for her.

This was just the most of them she's shown anyone other than Anoel.

"7 feet, 4 inches, or just about 223.5 centimeters. They're longer than I thought they'd be…" GHOST mumbled as she tapped a tablet scroll to mark it down. "Do you mind if I touch them? I wanna map the bone structure."

The phoenix kept her wings outstretched as she peered slightly back at GHOST, taking one of her arms into her hand as she shrunk her shoulders a little bit.

"S-Sure. And they have to be," Arex murmured. This was one of the few things she actually knew for certain about her anatomy. "Flight wouldn't be easy if they were any shorter."

"Yeah, I figured that," GHOST replied with a smile as she approached Arex's right wing, gently placing a hand close to the base. She let it slide across the top of the wing slowly as her eyes focused on keeping a constant speed. "I'm giving a localised x-ray and ultrasound scan of your bones, mapping their dimensions."

Arex hugged her arms to herself tighter as that touch drifted over her feathers. She had little control over her wing curling up into GHOST's hand as it slid further down. "Okay…"

When that hand reached the tip, GHOST pulled her arm back and turned her emerald gaze to her tablet.

"Fascinating… they're thinner than even the thinnest recorded avian faunus wing we have…" the AI muttered as her eyes glued to the device. "No _wonder_ you're so light."

Arex's gaze only lowered further as she wondered if she could lower her wings yet. "I don't think they're made of the same material most bones are. They're flexible, and I think they're less dense too."

She knew they were hollow, but it was nice to hear it confirmed.

"To find out further, I'd have to stick you with a needle. But I don't wanna do that since you're uncomfortable with it," GHOST replied, turning her gaze to the phoenix.

The word 'needle' had already tightened the muscles in Arex's body, an ashamed gaze peering back at the AI. "I-I'd really rather not deal with needles. Can't a more precise x-ray determine it?"

"Not for chemical analysis. But it's not important right now. I'm more interested in mapping your insides out at the moment," GHOST said, smiling a little.

That… made Arex pale a little, at the wording used.

"Say your most delicate bones break, it's easier to reconstruct them if I have a base to work from," GHOST explained, turning back to her scroll. "That said, we have a full body scanner for your organs. You'll need to strip down. Clothing tends to disrupt the results a little. Just underwear will do."

Arex's eyes immediately went a little wide before falling again, finding their way to Kitsuki sitting in her little chair at the edge of the room.

The kitsune was completely out of it as the two small robots on her head played with her ears, tongue almost lulling out of her mouth.

So Arex actually found it a little easier to nod her head.

"There's a changing room right next to it, so don't worry about exposing yourself for too long," GHOST reassured. "Given that I'm distracting your partner to the best of my ability, you shouldn't feel too uncomfortable."

"Y-Yeah… thanks for that," Arex replied quietly, letting her wings curl back toward herself and drape from her back. "Is it fine if I keep my wings wrapped around my torso for the scan?"

Arex's voice fell into a lighter and meeker tone, gaze turning toward GHOST for a moment.

"If you can keep them tightly wrapped around your body, yes. The scanner uses an ultra high-frequency sonar, so if there are any gaps between your wings and body, it'll disrupt the image. Hence why I said to strip down." The AI walked toward a hall in the hospital, briefly turning to face the phoenix with a smile. "If you'll follow me please."

Arex… didn't like the sound of that. Sure, she had her wings wrapped around herself almost 24/7 whenever she was awake, but she didn't know if it was an airtight seal.

She'd even find herself shifting them around and moving them out just slightly to create a pocket of air against her body for comfort.

B-But…

The phoenix quickly realized GHOST was still waiting for her, Arex following the AI as she kept a low, embarrassed gaze down at her walking feet. "I-I know you said strip down, but I'm… kind of not…"

She was starting to trail off as she let her legs move on their own, drifting her narrowing eyes further and further away from GHOST's frame.

"I can turn around if you'd like, even keep my eyes closed," GHOST filled in for her, amused smile brightening a little.

Arex frowned, despite feeling a little more at ease with GHOST saying she'd look away. "A-Aren't you the one running the scan, though?"

How much would turning away even help?

"I'll see them in the end result, even if you were running with full underwear. But for your comfortability, me not directly staring would help, no?"

Arex's blush only seemed to get worse, but she gave a tiny nod to that. "It would help…"

"See? Thought so. But in all honesty, you don't have to do this if you don't want to," GHOST replied with an air of concern. "It's for checking the health of your organs, and given the alternative… it's much less invasive."

"I-I prefer the scan," Arex responded, finding it in herself to draw her gaze back over to GHOST as they walked. "And I'm as curious as you are about my body. I've never had it looked at in depth before, so I want to know what makes me… well… Phoenix."

"We make it a priority to maintain the health of everyone who works for us. This helps us just as much as it gives you peace of mind." GHOST offered her hand out to Arex as they stood before a wooden door in the sterile hallway. "When you're ready, we can go in. You can use the curtain to take your clothes off in privacy, then I'll begin the scan. It takes about 5 minutes, using the highest grade components we can construct. So it's much faster than what you'll find anywhere else."

Arex glanced to the door for a few long moments, but she ultimately decided this was something she wanted to do. Especially because, as far as she was concerned, research done into Phoenix kind hit a wall when the hunts stopped.

There were too few left for the scientific community to actually maintain the tests they were interested in running.

So, this was something she'd always been curious about.

Maybe she'd be able to find out why it was so interesting to them.

"It will, and I'm happy to help wherever I can to make maintaining my health easier for you," Arex spoke slowly, reaching her hand out to let it fall gently in GHOST's own. "Do you need my wings spread out for the scan?"

"The scanner is the size of a small room. So long as they don't obstruct the front and back of your torso and abdomen, you're fine to have them loosely fanned out," GHOST instructed clearly, opening the door to the scanning room. "This is the control room, where I'll be monitoring the scan."

The AI pointed to a pair of circular doors at the end of a small corridor, a pair of curtains hanging just before them.

"Through there is the actual scanner. Once you've stripped, I'll open the doors for you. Just walk and stand in the middle of the room, marked with a white circle, and stay as still as you can for the duration of the scan." GHOST laid out her directions in a collected manner as she took a seat on a swivel chair in front of the desk. "Oh, and don't forget to breathe. It looks and sounds scary, but it won't hurt you."

Arex was… actually glad GHOST reminded her of that. She probably would've tried to hold her breath for the procedure.

Which she already knew she couldn't do for 5 minutes.

She slowly nodded, eyes still on the curtains as she made her way down the short hall and closed them. It was a small, slightly spacious enclosure just before the sealed doors into the next room.

Her eyes traced down for a moment to look at the hospital floor, taking a guess that it was probably going to be cold once she stepped out of her shoes.

She eventually did as asked. Once she'd built up the nerve to, anyway.

Arex tucked in her wings to make the removal of her sweater easier, folding the thin fabric up to rest with her shorts and shoes on a nearby bench. Her ankle socks were the last to go, the phoenix sitting down for a moment to slide them off.

When she lowered her light feet to the floor, she grimaced for a moment at the cold, smooth surface against her skin.

And the open air against her chest only reminded her of why she was so hesitant to agree to this earlier.

Having a pair of wings was great and all…

But it made comfortably wearing a bra almost impossible.

And as she stood up, she couldn't help but let her wings wrap back around her torso like a corset to cup over and cover her bare chest for the time being.

"Whenever you're ready, Arex, just approach the doors and they'll open automatically. Bare in mind that once you're in, I need to lock you in for the duration of the scan. If it's too much for you though, shout, and I'll turn the machine off." GHOST informed her as she purposefully kept her gaze averted.

"I-It's fine," Arex replied back, a small shiver slipping through her voice as she hugged her arms to her slender body. She was never a fan of being this bare in a sterile environment… It only made her feel unnaturally cold.

And there wasn't much she could do about that aside from heat the air around her.

But she didn't know what that would do to the test, so she held herself back from doing it.

After a few moments of shuffling around, she got herself to move forward and into the next room. Its doors sealed shut behind her as she padded inside.

The scanning room was… bigger than she thought it'd be.

And colder.

Her eyes scanned over the well-lit reaches of the area, gaze roaming over the domed ceiling arcing over the floor and walls before falling on the illuminated white circle at its center.

She carefully and lightly padded her way over to it, situating herself as centered as she could before slowly unraveling her wings from her chest.

Their ebony tips fell to the ground as she stretched them out a little, letting them drape laxly at her sides. She kept them as away as she could from her front and back.

Her eyes fell on a set of mechanical arms connected to a pivot point at the center of the ceiling, just two of them.

The appetures at their ends were enough to let her know those were going to be running the scan itself.

A small breath made its way into her lungs as she silently prepared herself, before turning her eyes forward again and trying to stand still.

"Okay. You can scan now," she voiced.

"Stay in the circle, keep your head and body straight, and keep breathing," GHOST reminded her one last time before Arex heard the doors lock behind her. "Starting the scan now."

Light began to flicker to life on the arms before they slowly began spinning around the girl, gradually picking up speed as mechanical whirring and an almost inaudible humming resonated through the chamber.

As their pace quickened, she felt a mild pressure start to rise against her body. The room's temperature started to rise slightly as it did.

Her breathing drew shorter from it, but she kept it under control as best she could.

The arms reached a steady pace as a 5 minute timer appeared on the wall in front of Arex, counting down as the scan continued.

She didn't realize how hard standing perfectly still was going to be until she saw the timer ticking down…

And she couldn't help but mentally whine at the clock's unnaturally slow pace.

* * *

"Whiskey," I said. My attention was too stray to look at our bar waitress right now. I needed something to drink after that stunt in the ocean, and the excruciating talk afterward.

Who knew _explaining_ things could be so annoying? Professors do it all the time, and to people who don't even listen to them.

That must be infuriating…

I'm surprised they're not all serial mass murderers.

"I'll have what he's having." The brunette across from me was more or less glued to me at this point. Or rather, she was _persuaded_ to stick around with that lion constantly rubbing her side.

In fact, for a Grimm, he was taking a startling liking to Skyla. Someone innately annoying with the mask she puts on to invade the personal space of others.

Now, _all that was left_ was to wonder if she was a lightweight. And for the love of humanity, did she have to bring a bowl of ice cream in here? It's a bar.

You don't make rootbeer floats out of whiskey and Cookies and Cream ice cream.

"W-Would… h-he like a-anything?"

 _God,_ the waitress stutters almost as much as Arex does when she's under social pressure.

I finally looked up at the girl. Her eyes were cast down, staring hesitantly at the lion resting his head in Skyla's lap, under her 'pleasant' ministrations with her petting. His tail was sweeping by the waitress' legs.

I was surprised she was willing to stand so close to his sitting body, but with how little of the booth's table she could reach with him there, she didn't have much of a choice.

We brought a white lion into the bar. So what?

I looked around at the empty establishment. It wasn't like we chased the customers away. They were already gone by the time _I_ walked in here. I knew this small little village.

It was quaint. Small, but populated enough to be somewhat well defended. I visited whenever I needed anything from the brewery here, which specialized in whiskey. But I more or less just imported most of the stock.

I only visited when Grimm activity was too high for travel in these parts.

Which was why people weren't exactly eager to be near me over here. Considering I can walk in and out of grimmlands without a problem.

You'd think they'd look up to something like that, but it only made them more fearful. I would be too… if a strange man clad in black visits a town on lockdown, and clears the Grimm problems with a mere leisure walk.

Just for a stash of alcohol to carry home.

It was good alcohol. Just dangerous to procure, for most.

"Get him some milk," I answered, blandly might I add.

Our friendly neighborhood _Grimm_ lion gave me a disgusted look.

"What? Don't cats drink milk?" I returned the look with an irritated one of my own, earning a snarl from his nestled maw.

"I think he wants something meaty," Skyla voiced instead. Why did she always have to ruin everything? "Do you have steak? If you do, just bring it uncooked. And a lot of it."

"W-We do."

The lion purred at that.

 _Greeeeaaaat._ Skyla was only making her relationship with that lion _even better_ than it already was.

The waitress nervously left with our orders after that.

"His stomach was rumbly, so I figured he was hungry," Skyla said, her hands rubbing into the lion's mane as she sat back in her booth. She was across from me.

I was half-hoping the weight of the lion's head on her lap was enough to make her uncomfortable. Because at least _that_ would be gratifying enough to watch as we temporarily stayed here.

No.

She looked content.

Like a chipmunk on crack.

"So…" she started, her amethyst eyes turning to me. "With that whole 'ocean freezing then crashing together thing', do you think the people here heard it?"

Heard it? That crashing rumble was deafening up close. A sound like that could easily carry itself and be heard miles inland if the hills and forests weren't enough to muffle it.

"With how many trees were in the way, and the small mountain range, they might've," I said. I wasn't certain just how far the sound traveled, but we weren't about to find out. Not unless we asked-

"Excuse me!" Skyla called out, waving to our waitress.

I _will_ brutal kill you. You _know_ that, right?

The waitress quickly scampered back over from the bar, eyes solely on Skyla as the girl flagged her down.

"Did any weird, loud noises come through here lately?" the brunette asked, eyes innocent. Screw off with that mask already.

"I-I'm sorry?" the waitress replied nervously, tucking some of her hair away from her ear. Out of nervous habit, _of course_. It was a silent signal to 'say that again, but a little dumber so I'm not confused'.

"She's wondering if you heard an ocean fold in on itself a few hours ago," my voice cut in, low and blunt.

The waitress' stare switched to me in a stunned stuper before I noticed the tiniest, dumbstruck shake of her head. Confusion riddled her face soon after.

The sound didn't travel this far.

"Nevermind! Thank you," Skyla said, pulling the waitress' attention back to her. "That's all. And you're very cute, by the way."

Our waitress gave another stunned look before straightening up, letting the chestnut hair she tucked behind her ear fall against her blushing cheek. Maybe she was trying to hide it.

"E-Erm, thank y-you?"

Skyla nodded with a pitched "mhmm!" before smiling, watching the waitress walk off in a fluster. Probably making sure the girl _felt_ her eyes on her the whole walk back to the bar.

 _Subtle, Skyla_.

"Your specialty must be subtlety," I commented dryly, _sarcastically_. And Skyla knew it too.

"It's my middle name," she quipped back, giving what she probably thought to be _her_ lion an affectionate rub between the ears.

At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if her middle name actually did juxtapose her entire existence. "You're infuriating."

"Oh, I know." Skyla waved dismissively at me, in that _infuriating_ kind of way, with that _infuriating_ smile. "So! You and mister lion seem to get along. Almost like you two can speak to each other, but without saying a word. Just subtle glances say everything."

 _No shit_. "That comes with the territory of knowing each other for a long time," I replied, giving Skyla an irritated stare. Maybe that drink would make this a little more bearable.

And make killing her a little sweeter.

"How long have you two known each other?" she asked. There was a wonder in her eyes, a genuine curiosity.

Behind that, she hid a look of sadness. Something told me she already put it together.

"Seventeen years. Nearly eighteen, now," I answered. There weren't many blanks to fill after that. That was my age in years. _Precisely_ , my age, down to the year I was born.

It's felt a lot longer than a measly number like that…

"Okay." That was Skyla's only word. She didn't look surprised or astonished, so that was conclusive proof she already knew.

Good for her.

Maybe the _lion_ told her. Because _clearly_ he favors her over me all of a sudden. I wonder why.

"What was that even like?" she asked, pushing what she was allowed to be curious about. "To be raised by Grimm like tha-"

"I said I _knew_ him for that amount of time. I never said he raised me for all those years. But tell you what," I interjected. "Let's double back for a moment and _not_ talk about this. Instead, let's switch the subject to something you'd actually be interested in."

"Oh? Okay, like what?" she wondered aloud. But it took her a moment to say it, giving her time to take in what I rattled back at her.

I actually couldn't believe I was doing this…

"You." My reply was short. Blunt. And entirely head-perking for the girl in front of me.

Because she _gasped_.

" _Me?!_ " Now she was _reeeaaally_ pushing it. "You, _Niro Ezdeil_ , want to know about _yours truly_ , the _mysterious_ Skyla Xerious?"

"Actually, _I do_ ," I replied through grit teeth, watching the way her face grew in intrigue. It was aggravating. "Because I don't like talking to a mask."

"Well! I don't like talking through one. So fair is fair, I guess," she replied evenly, sustaining our little eye contact. Her mask still wasn't down.

Maybe I could break it off her.

"Let's start things off _easy_ , then," I replied, paying careful attention to the way her eyes shifted back to me. And the way her petting of the lion's head didn't still in the slightest.

Her coolness under pressure was even more aggravating to deal with.

"You're intelligent. Perceptive. You can spot a well-obscured lie in a calmly said sentence and _somehow_ make it seem like you believe if full heartedly, while obviously you dug the truth out of it," I said to start. Her eyes stayed on mine as she hummed along with the words, almost seeming distracted.

She wasn't distracted in the slightest.

"You can read social atmospheres better than most. _Act_ on them and solve them like some one-sided rubix cube. Banter with anyone without feeling a lick of any real emotion yourself. Feel _literally_ fearless in most extreme scenarios. The magic of the Death Core being the _only_ exception," I continued. And she _stayed_ unnervingly sweet and calm with her ministrations and occasional bites of ice cream. "Don't even get me started on how easily you can pinpoint a broken seam in any one person and _rip_ into it, going straight through personal space to dissect what makes that person who they are."

My list was only growing, and she didn't seem fazed.

"And now you're sitting in a bar, with a man with no morals and a king Grimm resting his head on your lap. You just escaped near death, saw a half-dead _Dremoha_ try to kill the both of us, _and now know_ of the _existence_ of a Core that's _literal purpose_ is to _kill everything it touches_. And _I_ tried to use it on _you_."

What the _hell_ was this girl made of? If I didn't already know she wasn't, I could've easily shrugged her off as some sort of hell-incarnate, suicidal social engineer with a triple specialization in human therapy on all levels, sociopathic creativity, and complete and utter stupidity.

But she was _none of those_.

Why the hell am I so invested in this?!

"Oh, thank you," Skyla finally said, but not to me.

Her gaze was turned up to see our waitress. She was less nervous than before, still shaking, but less nervous. She was carrying our drinks, along with a second tray of raw meat. Stacked in a tall pile.

She looked like she wanted to say something, but just couldn't get it out. So she made a move to place one of the trays on a nearby, empty booth…

But dropped _our drinks_ in the process.

The waitress squeaked and jerked her hand, only making things worse as the falling glasses began to spill our whiskey.

 _Please. Just stop._

I reached out, hearing the searing shriek inside our white lion's growl as a quick frost flash-froze the drinks. The chilled glass fell comfortably into my hand just over the table, Skyla's own leisurely reaching out to catch her own as our waitress stared in shock.

"I-I'm so sorry!"

" _Save it_ for people who actually care," I replied, setting my frozen glass down. The solid form of my whiskey immediately melted back into its liquid state, swirling to a standstill in my glass at its rapid transition. The ice cubes inside clinked to life as it did.

"R-Really, I-I'm sorry," she tried again, backing up slightly when she met the crystal blue eyes of the resident lion in our booth.

The one who _actually_ stopped the drinks from spilling, instead of making things worse.

"O-Oh gods..." Our waitress froze up as the creature's white mass slowly stood from where he was sitting, lifting his head from Skyla's lap to turn to her.

She didn't even dare to move a muscle as the lion calmly pawed at the ground, taking a few slow, deliberate steps toward the waitress in his methodical, silent way. That was one of the terrifying things about creatures built for killing.

When they eyed you, and _moved_ with the silent intent to approach you and circle you, you never knew what was running through its mind. Whether it wanted to spare you, eat you, kill you for sport, leave you without a limb.

The mere slowness of his movements skyrocketed the tremoring beat of her heart, and she started to shake.

By the time he reached her, she was two beats away from passing out.

And with even more deliberation, I watched in mild amusement as the lion craned his head up, easily reaching her shoulder in height to calmly clench his maw around the tray of meat she'd yet to set down.

Then he gingerly took it from her. Her breathing slowly began to even back out after that.

So after a calm nuzzle of thanks against her limp hand down at her side, he made his way back to the booth.

Then ate his food at Skyla's feet near the frozen Death Dust crystal, where she bounced her heel over a pair of crossed legs.

"Thank you for the drinks," the brunette chirped innocently again, directing her soft, grateful voice to our staring waitress. "We'll be sure to tip you plenty if you keep our drinks coming. And make sure the kitty's well fed, okay?"

Skyla swirled her whiskey gently against the rim of her glass for a moment, clinking the ice inside it as she offered the young girl a pleasant smile.

She seemed to buy it, given her slow, tiny nod. Then Skyla gave her a small wave in return as the waitress clumsily whirled around and walked off.

"Okay!" Skyla said, snapping her attention back to me now. "Anything else nice and complimentary you wanna say about me? Or should we just continue our date with idle chatter and some nice drinks?"

I nearly crushed the table when I heard a chortle come out of the lion beneath it.

* * *

Anoel and Lylac had been working on each other's dresses for about an hour now, hiding away in separate rooms to make the reveal more surprising.

Ano just hoped her melding of colors actually looked as good to Ly as it did to her.

The dress she picked out didn't have a long, trailing skirt like she'd always imagined fairy tale princesses to wear.

It had decent length for sure, but the soft fabric slid against itself with a long slit for breathing room. The material was silk, backless, and mapped out to form around Ly's figure nicely once she was inside it.

Ano made sure the front wasn't too revealing, figuring the thin straps and full reveal of her shoulders and nape were enough to draw attention.

 _Especially_ from Anoel herself.

The colors of it were a soft mix of blue and pink, both colors mute enough to avoid clashing on the attire. It instead gave it a slimming flow following those melding colors down over the contours of the light dress. Almost like a glimmering ocean at sunset.

Which Ano already knew she'd be tracing all night.

But now that she was done, she was waiting anxiously by the door to their master bedroom. Her careful fingers held the dress by its hangar behind her back, gently swaying it as she bounced restlessly on the balls of her feet.

It was… surprisingly nerve wracking, wondering what Ly's reaction might be to seeing what Ano turned that pretty blue dress into from the store.

A heavy, relieved breath could be heard through the door as Anoel caught movement on the other side. Soft, padded footfalls headed toward her before stopping just on the inside of the closed bedroom.

"I trust you're done too?" Ly called out in question from behind the small obstruction between them.

Anoel bit her lip a little as she shuffled in the center of the hall. "Mhmm. I trust you haven't been peeking?"

"You _know_ my semblance only works effectively in close proximity." Ano could hear the grin in the thief's voice as she replied. "And if it's any consolation, I'm not using it now either."

The phoenix smirked a little in her relief, standing a little straighter as she stilled in her antsy movements. "Well…? Gonna come out?"

"Only if we agree to close our eyes then swap," Ly replied a little demandingly.

Anoel slowly drew out the dress she held tenderly in her grasp and took a step forward, moving herself just a few steps from the door before closing her eyes. "We can. But I want to see your reaction."

"That's why we _open_ them once the exchange is completed," Ly stated, the excited grin in her voice becoming increasingly obvious. "It'll be fair that way."

Ano couldn't help but roll her eyes a little at how childish they were being, but the nerves she was feeling at the prospect of showing Ly the dress she was about to wear all night and seeing her own… It really made her feel anxious.

And excited.

The info-broker soon quietly sighed before tilted her head, eyes still closed as she held the dress close to her chest. "Alright. Well, I'm ready whenever you are."

Anoel heard the door open and Ly step into the hallway before her. The heat signature of a gentle hand delicately pinched the dress she held and she felt the sensation of silk brushing against her own hand.

She gently took the material into her grasp and cradled it, as if moving her hands just a little faster or more abrasively would destroy the material altogether.

But she patiently waited for Ly's call to open her eyes, feeling that nervous anxiousness trickle into her chest to quicken her heart's beat in the meantime.

The dress felt so soft. Maybe it was because it was silk she hadn't been intently touching over the past hour, or maybe it was just the fact that Ly's idea to have her close her eyes only made her hands curiously aware of what they were trying to feel.

"Okay… _open,"_ Ly instructed giddily.

Ano took a slow breath as she cracked her eyes open, Ly letting her own eyes open to reveal the pink orbs Anoel was so fond of. Those shining eyes very quickly began roaming over the colorful dress she held as her breath hitched a little.

Anoel may have cheated a little in their game. Her eyes focused on Ly's face before even attempting to look down just yet to engrave the look of bashful adoration Ly just donned.

"I…" the thief was speechless as an admiring smile curled on her lips. "It's beautiful..."

Those two words brought a smile to Ano's own lips and finally gave her permission to look down to see what draped comfortably in the grasp of her delicate fingers.

It was a black, short-skirt, backless dress with a slimming style to its overall shape. The hem of the skirt looked long enough to reach her mid thigh, and the front was very modest with how much it covered.

The focus of appeal in the design was clearly her neck, back, shoulders, and legs.

The shoulder straps were thin, and a series of similar straps wrapped around in an overlapped 'X' that looked like it'd settle over her collarbones and cross over the center of her upper back.

The last two straps looked like they'd slip horizontally over her lower back, the upper backless area open and free for movement of her wings if she wanted to bring them out.

It was perfect… the way the black material matched the ebony color of her wings. She'd be able to show her wings just a little bit and no one would ever know her dress was backless.

But the real effort Ano found in the dress itself were the gently glinting gems nestled in the fabric. Small, citrine crystals lay beautifully scattered about the dress in a flattering but spread out array of glistening lights.

Each one reflected the dim light of the hallway with a bright, almost luminescent shine, and she couldn't help but think Ly chose those specifically because they resembled her burning fire.

"Yours is beautiful too…" Ano slowly murmured, ashamed of using the same word Ly used to describe the dress she'd given her. But she couldn't think of anything else to call it right now.

And she only really wanted to do one thing with it.

"I'm putting it on," Anoel stated firmly, casting her eyes back up to see Ly's own staring at her.

"Right now? It's only just past lunch. We have a while yet," Ly replied softly, eyes staying on Ano's. " _But…_ I'm not opposed to seeing you try it on beforehand… 40 carat citrine gems hand stitched into a black silk dress had better look as expensive as you deserve it to be."

The redness Ano didn't even know was in her cheeks steadily rose as she smiled again, holding the dress up slightly to cover her lips because of how stupidly happy she felt.

It was just her glistening eyes peering over the fabric that Ly could see.

"I doubt I deserve to wear a dress even a tenth as expensive as this is, but I'm more than happy to try it on just to see how it all fits," Anoel muttered. "And to see how you like it on the figure you made it for."

"Seeing you in a 1.5 mil dress would make my day," Ly simpered, her smirk widening as she gazed into the phoenix's eyes adoringly.

It only made Ano's blush spread to her ears, which were proudly on display due to her leaving her hat in the other room. "Probably not as much as it'll make mine when I see the face you make once it's on…"

"What are you waiting for then?" Ly asked playfully, placing a hand on her hip as her own dress draped over her other forearm.

"You know I can't put it on myself," Ano grumbled quietly, lowering the dress she held in front of herself just slightly to give Ly an amused look. "You get to watch me put it on _and_ see the final product. Unless you want me to struggle in there."

"Maybe the thought of you struggling gives me sadistic gratification?" Ly replied complacently.

Anoel scoffed playfully for a moment as she rolled her eyes. "Well, I can always _try_ to change on my own with these sore arms. Kinda disheartening to hear you get more gratification knowing I'm in pain than seeing me without any clothes on."

"I'm pulling your leg," Ly remarked with a little giggle as she grabbed Anoel's hand. "C'mon then, you had me sold with the thought of you wearing no clothes anyway."

"Isn't that always in your thoughts?" Ano asked cheekily as she let herself get tugged into the room with a small smirk, kicking the door closed behind them again once they were inside.

Ly turned a half-lidded gaze back to Ano as they entered the master bedroom. " _Always._ "

* * *

 **Okay, let's see… Skyla's character is getting questioned, Niro's desire to kill is rising, my white lion is getting fleshed out, Arex's anatomy is being revealed, GHOST's weird passtime is known, Kit's desire to take Arex has been noted, Ano and Ly are prepping for their date by being kids…**

 **I think that went well. I hope.**

 **Good little character developments and discoveries. I want the conversation between Skyla and Niro to be revealing for their two character designs.**

 **So, it'll continue in the next chapter.**

 **Upcoming things get interesting for the rest of the characters in the meantime.**

 **On another note, Skyla and Niro talk about their semblances in the next chapter. It'll be pretty revealing for the both of them, I think. If Niro's willingly talkative.**

 **For now,** _ **Favorite**_ **and** _ **Follow**_ **.**

 **I look forward to seeing** _ **REVIEWS**_ **for this. You'll be introduced to a LOT of concepts of mine. Feel free to give me your thoughts.**

 **Cya XP**

* * *

 **Omake:** _by Xera Stark_

* * *

"I'll be honest with you," Skyla said, riding on the back of her white lion. "I never imagined you to be an animal person. Do you have a pack?"

"No." Niro's voice was dead. Devoid of all joy, care, devotion, _breath_. It was cold. And he was _very_ dead.

"Are you sure? I think there's probably a pack of cute lil Grimm ducklings out there, missing their mamma Niro!" Skyla reasoned, sounding so sure of herself.

Niro would rather die. "We have a Death crystal. I will swallow it. And there is nothing you can do to stop me."

"Oh, oh, oh! What if their real mother was gone, and they needed to imprint on someone to learn how to survive?!" the brunette's voice was only getting louder with intrigue as her mind stormed with obviously logical ideas of her non-fantasy. "And that's how they ran across you! They needed someone to take care of them!"

"Eating it now," Niro deadpanned, almost crushing the crystal in his hand as he raised it to his mouth. Ghastly hands scurried away from his skin, as if trying to get away from him as he went to take as big a bite as possible.

Only for Skyla to slap it out of his hand with her extending arm. Niro's dead eyes watched the crystal careen over the edge of the cliffside they'd been walking along, a look of horror and murder settling in his gaze.

"How could you just _abandon_ them like that?!" she yelled, pulling the white lion to a stop by the mane and taking Niro by the sides of his face. "They _needed you!_ How could you just _leave them to die?!_ "

"You. Are. _Insane_." Niro's voice was _somehow_ more dead and angry than before. His body was firmly planted and didn't budge an inch either, leaving Skyla to vigorously shake herself around as she tried to shake him.

" _You killed them!_ They were your _family!_ " she wailed.

" _If_ they even _existed_ , I'd _happily_ let them _die_ ," Niro replied. He kept his voice dry, _lethal_ , and so, _so_ ready to cut into Skyla's very being. If she freaked out over the death of cute animals?

He was going to massacre every last one of them.

"Y-You monster!" Skyla shook herself harder against Niro, arms still trying to shake him as he stared at her.

His next words were interrupted by a shake of the brush nearby, and Skyla stopped in an instant.

Tiny, unmistakable little quacks chorused from the bushes as the two watched a _line_ of black, red-eyed ducklings march out of the foliage. All of them had little black cowboy hats nestled on their heads at varying tilts.

Each of the little ducklings stopped, one by one, bright eyes locking with Niro's.

The lion beneath Skyla _died_ laughing. Skyla herself _died_ squealing.

And Niro threw himself off the side of that very cliff.


	51. Diverted

Rogue Huntsman

Diverted

«»

"Okay mister cowboy, if you're interested in me, I really only do Tuesdays and Thursdays," Skyla said, giving me a half-wave from over her drink. She leisurely sat herself back against the inside of her booth in the meantime, like she owned this conversation.

And if I didn't know any better, she actually _did_. Which was aggravating to no end.

"We're not dating. And there _isn't_ any interest shared," I said back, the glass of my drink cracking beneath the pressure of my hand.

Her eyes watched the way the cracks receded, mending itself back together before smiling. "Wrong! Because I'm interested in you. Therefore, there is interest between us!"

"One-sided interest doesn't count," I refuted.

Skyla's aggravating smile only grew, and she tilted her head bemusedly at me. Long brown hair _annoyingly_ swayed from the tiny action as she rested her cheek in her palm, black jacket sleeve contrasting her skin.

She gave me an expectant look as she bounced her high-top boot beneath the table, the tip of it absently scratching into a pleased lion's fur.

What the hell did she want from me?

"So… gonna tell me how you fixed your glass?" Skyla asked, the expectancy in her amethyst gaze gleaming now.

 _Not. Particularly._ "Why would I?"

Her smile stayed _just_ the way it was as she tilted her head a little more, eyes turning away in mock innocence. "What? Can't a girl be curious? You just showed her a trick, after all… and now you don't even want to tell her how you did it."

Just what kind of world did this damn girl live in? My hand tensed again, but I kept the glass from cracking again _just_ to avoid further instigating her.

Not that it helped.

"What's the point of explaining what I can do?" I asked, keeping my voice nice and harsh. "We'll never be working together, will _hopefully_ never meet again after this, and most importantly, _you_ knowing more about _me_ is more than enough incentive not to tell you _anything_."

I made myself _immeasurably_ clear. As clear cut as I could portray without physically hurting her.

"What if I told you about me?" she asked.

And of _course_ it didn't damn work…

"You think I'm even remotely curious about what you can do?" I replied, bringing my gaze down into a condescending, self-righteous glare.

"I do." Skyla's head tipped back up as she leaned forward, giving me a snarky and punchable grin. "Because _I'm_ interesting and _you're_ not."

What kind of reasoning was that?!

"Oh, and also I'm bored. And you're bored. And we need something to talk about," she tacked on, taking her hand off her cheek. Her eyes donned a more earnest look as she gazed back at me. "Tell you what, I'll start."

 _I never. Agreed. To this._

"I can alter the movement of particles," she started, quietly tapping at the table as she gave a distracted smile. "You know, give them movement, take it away, that kind of thing. Really messes with temperature and structure."

Great. So she can microwave things. Guess that explains why she was scared to dry herself off. "Congratulations, you can make something warmer and cool something off. Sounds like a miracle," I deadpanned, but it only drew a smile out of her.

"I guess so… It can be pretty scary, though," Skyla replied. She moved her arms about before resting her elbows on the table, squishing her cheeks between her hands as she let them hold her head up. "Like, have you ever accidentally blew something up?"

"I have," I answered. "But that was a long time ago," I added, knowing she'd _somehow_ take it out of context and apply it to something completely unrelated.

"Do you ever feel… bad about it?" she asked, her gaze looking more and more distracted. Like she was thinking back to something.

 _God,_ I hoped she wasn't going to give me some sort of sobby backstory… "No," I lied, and somehow I knew she could tell.

"You know, you're not as mean as everyone seems to think you are," the brunette commented idly, her eyes staying on mine. Part of me wondered why, because all it looked like from my end was her gaze boring through my own to see through me.

My eyes aren't windows, _you know_. "Guess I need to be meaner."

The door to our small establishment pushed open with a soft shudder of glass, and the three of us noticed a small group of men walk in. Just four of them.

One of which pushed a young faunus girl by the head to keep her at the front of the pack.

"A couple drinks for the boys, lady," his low-toned voice spoke as the girl fell to the floor, the man's attention fixed on our waitress by the bar. "Oh, and make it snappy. We're just passing through."

He punctuated his order with a hard thunk. The sound of him resting the butt of a rifle on the wooden bar countertop.

 _Great…_

* * *

After the five minutes were up, Arex was ready to collapse. It was honestly a huge strain on her body to keep perfectly still for that short amount of time.

So, GHOST was adamant about not running anymore tests for the rest of the day.

Which left Arex with a widely open timeblock. And she wanted to spend that on her own projects, now that she had access to the forge in the Vault.

All it would take would be a quick stop at Beacon, to get what she didn't pack up the first time around. She forgot her tech supplies when she hastily packed up to go to Ly's. Her weapon too. So she wanted to make sure she wasn't forgetting anything else this time.

Arex made sure to grab a napping kitsune after getting dressed, promising GHOST she'll be quick at the room before heading out. She flew the rest of the way to Beacon from there, asking the AI to pick them up in a car again to carry the supplies to the Vault.

A more _discrete_ car. Nothing showy or fancy. But GHOST didn't make any promises about that…

Arex's scroll pinged the moment she stockpiled a few personal boxes by her door, including the suitcase of lien she _still_ had no idea what to do with. It was her payment from Ray for building the processors he asked her to make.

He probably used them too, in that fight with Quinn… and she still hadn't found a use for the lien she received in return for it. And _half_ of it was Kitsuki's. That was a decision Arex was determined to keep.

The phoenix's eyes roamed over to Kit for a moment, the kitsune really only here because Arex honestly didn't want to come alone. And GHOST was sure to convince her to bring Kit along anyway, instead of drop her off at the apartment. It was safer that way. And Kit helped pack things up, so it made the trip faster.

Kitsuki's eyes fell curiously to the black scroll in Arex's hands as the techy's own wary gaze fell to her screen, flicking to the new message.

"Dante…?" she muttered aloud, furrowing her brow. She quickly glanced to her supplies again before grimacing, knowing she'd regret reading his message.

H-How… important was it?

' _Are you in right now?'_

She hesitantly closed her eyes at possibly answering that. She was in, but she was on a tight schedule. And _really_ didn't want to worry Anoel and Lylac, and GHOST too, while she was at it.

' _Yes or no little bird, I don't have time for idleness right now.'_

He seemed… impatient, though. And she grimaced again as she unlocked her scroll and typed him a response. _'Yes? What's wrong?'_

After a few seconds, Arex was starting to realize he was writing up a long explanation. Which really didn't bode well for Arex's worries. It didn't just look like this was an important matter, it was starting to look like it was going to be time consuming too.

And if he's going into detail about what was _wrong_ , it _really_ didn't sit well with her to just ignore him. If Dante of all people was freaking out about it, she had no idea what to expect, and couldn't exactly back down from it either.

The phoenix quietly sat on the edge of the bed as she tensely waited, letting Kit peer over her shoulder. They watched the little dots bounce up and down at the bottom of her scroll as the immortal typed.

' _I don't have time to explain what I don't understand, and I can't really talk to anyone else about it right now. And since I'm certain you won't say nothing to no one about anything, you're my best bet right now. Wait, is Nosferatu in right now?'_

'Best bet'? Seriously? Arex thought she fit the worst bet category rather well, especially if any kind of combat or real experience was required. And who was… 'Nosferatu'? Was he talking about Niro?

' _He's not here. Why?'_ the phoenix sent back.

' _I don't need him screwing with me at the moment. Given my current state, I'd be like an irresistible toy to a three year old child. Look, yes or no, answer the question.'_

Arex slowly closed her eyes, then exchanged a quick look with Kitsuki, silently asking for help. The kitsune didn't look like she wanted to abandon this either, so she just gave the phoenix a sure look and a nod.

Guess they were really doing this…

' _Yes, I'm free. But I can't just leave Kit here.'_ Arex responded, staring concernedly at the screen as Kit reached down and typed too. _'I wanna come.'_

He'll… probably know that Kit was the one to send that.

Probably.

' _Thank my lucky stars, she's there too. That was sarcasm if you didn't get it. Swear her to secrecy, I don't care how. Cookies, pinky promise, blackmail, whatever.'_

Arex glanced up from the message and gazed over her shoulder. Kit's hands pressed gently against the phoenix's arm as she watched the kitsune read the message too.

" _I want you to rub my ears for an hour,"_ Kit signed with a happy, silent hum, nodding her head as she did.

Y-Yeah… yeah, that worked.

' _She won't say a word.'_ Arex sent back.

' _Alright. Stay right where you are, be there in a sec.'_

H-He's coming here?

There was a knock on the door.

Arex glanced up at how fast he got here, let alone how weird this conversation had been, if also worrying. Was he waiting out there the whole time…?

Even if they were neighbors, he had to already be out there…

But without much else to think, Arex dropped herself softly to her feet and made her way to the door, quickly pulling it open.

She was… met with an empty hallway.

She was short, sure, 5'5 when standing in her bare feet at best, just three inches taller than Kit was, but she wasn't _that_ short. Even so, she quickly found herself looking down to see a five-year-old staring up at her.

He had chin length black hair, red eyes with black slit pupils, which already made her take a careful step back, and he was wearing a zipped, black, sleeveless, vest hoodie.

She recognized that clothing, but still…

He had on a gray short sleeved shirt underneath it, black shorts, and black shoes with white soles.

It didn't make any sense…

"Erm…" She stared down to his short height for a few long moments before she took another careful step back. "Who're you?"

"Are you taking an off day? It's me," he spoke in a childlike voice.

She quickly glanced down to her scroll before glancing back up to the kid… then sent Dante a quick message, seeing if it came up on the child's device. _'Here?'_

A holographic display lit up in front of his hand as he raised it, quickly typing in a few letters in large font and bolded text. "HERE" prominently read out to her as he turned the screen around so she could see.

O-Oh…

"S-Sorry! I didn't recognize you," Arex quickly stepped back and opened up her door fully, letting the kid in as she glanced back in mild shock to Kitsuki.

She looked… more excited than surprised to see him.

"Thankfully no one else did either… I barely managed to dodge Inuba. If she sensed me out… God… I'd stop breathing for a long while…" the boy said, rubbing the back of his neck. His eyes glanced to her stash of boxes near the door for a moment, but didn't say anything.

"I guess smothering you would do that, but… how did this… happen?" Arex asked incredulously, wanting to know how the hell a teen as powerful as Dante got turned into…

Into…

A child.

"Hell if I know, little bird."

Arex mentally whined. Was he really still calling her little at that size?

"Unfortunately, I happen to be a super magnet in the case of pranks or small minded idiots who think I'm some sort of pushover, like that tall Linkin Park wannabe."

Was he still talking about Niro? "Sorry to hear that. Um, take a seat I guess…?"

She had no idea what she was doing, or how she was going to do it. But that thought alone jogged a quick exclamation out of her throat as she realized just what 'problem' he was asking help for.

"W-Wait, h-how am I even supposed to help?" her eyes stared at Dante in continuing disbelief as the door closed behind her.

"You're competent when it comes to attempting to understand problems and the like, and that's good enough for me. That, and you haven't tried to smother me at all. Yet," he replied.

"A-And I won't start trying to. I'm just… confused, is all." Arex's voice fell soft and unsure of itself, with no hint of confidence either.

"Transfiguration does that to people. Especially when they take on a form they've never seen before. By the way, do you have any cookies or something? I suddenly got a craving…" His eyes immediately glanced to their kitchenette over her shoulder.

"Transfiguration…" Arex muttered more to herself than him. Dante was of magic descent, she was sure of that. But she didn't know major things like this could even happen out of the blue.

To someone like him, no less.

"Yeah, Kit can get you some. She knows where they are," Arex glanced up to see Kitsuki sliding herself from their shared bed, the kitsune making her way into the kitchenette to open up a cupboard. "I think she still has that box of graham crackers you gave her last time, if you're fine with that. Do you want milk with it?"

He shot a glare at her. "I'm not five, little bird. And those will do."

"A-Alright. Sorry, I'm just still adjusting to… this." She glanced back to the five-year-old for just a moment before sighing, making her way over to Kitsuki to shut the cupboard behind her as the kitsune brought the open box to Dante.

One of the graham crackers was already sticking out of her mouth.

"What makes you think I can help?" Arex asked, making her way over as well. "I've never worked extensively with magic before, or anything of the sort."

"Again, it's a matter of competency. Asking Ray to help would be the same as asking an immature three year old with a BB gun to help. And Inuba would be too focused on smothering me. My siblings would do who knows what, and your sister…" he shuddered a moment. "I don't even want to think about what she'd do."

"I wouldn't want to think about it either…" Arex trailed off, not exactly sure what Anoel would do if she found out Dante was shrunk down like this. And so cutthroat too. She whimpered a little at the thought of what her sister would do if _Arex_ was shrunk down to that age.

What if this affected her too? And Kit?

"Plus, I'm going to need you to get me into places I usually can't without an adult or whatever, just in case," Dante added.

It made sense, but… "Doesn't your scroll retain all its authentication and security privileges? You're also smart enough to get yourself into places that are protected by admin rights, since you're still in the same mindset as your previous self. So what exactly do you mean by unreachable places?" Arex asked slowly.

"Ugh… Think about it, little bird," he said, tapping the side of his head three times. "Do you honestly think for a second they'd let in someone that looks like me possessing credentials like that?"

"But didn't you say you successfully snuck passed Inuba without her knowing about it?" That had to be worth something, right?

"Barely. Her senses are so fine tuned she could track me across the other side of the world." _S-Seriously?_ "It doesn't help that our souls are linked either, which in turn gives her a stronger ability to sense me out, even across dimensions," he explained.

Arex just sighed. Inuba sounded… impressive. She didn't know how he even _managed_ to get passed her this time, in this kind of state, if the kitsune was that good. "Fine. I can be your escort, if it helps, and I'll try to help you in any way I can. But you know far more about this than I do. I'll be asking a lot of questions."

"Ask them. I don't really care. But I'm gonna ask you a question first, something that's been on my mind for sometime. And you should answer truthfully." His words locked Arex up in her spot. "Otherwise I'll find out from somewhere else less desirable by equally less desirable methods."

H-He didn't have to be intimidating… about it.

A blue light flashed from behind them, where a small woman stood on the nightstand donning a confused expression.

"The hell is that?" Dante asked before he glanced at Arex.

"S-She's, erm… m-my animated alarm clock?" Arex offered, glancing to her holographic projector resting on the nightstand.

GHOST just dropped her head into her hand with a frown at that sad excuse for a coverup.

"My left foot that's an animated alarm clock. And that was a bad excuse. At least try next time." He squinted slightly, muttering to himself words like form and figure. "Wait a second… Are you that meddler that tried to get into my files a few nights ago?"

"Correction: I _did_ get into your files," GHOST replied. "You're… smaller than I remember."

"First things first, ask next time, or you'll get a nasty shock to your systems. Second, you're smaller than I am right now, so you aren't one to talk," Dante said.

"Arex? _Why?_ " GHOST asked confusedly, gesturing toward Dante in an unflattering fashion.

"The little bird and fox are my helpers for the day. They help me, they learn a few things here and there about this kind of nonsense so they don't suffer similarly in the future. Win win, mini retro Zelda sprite." Dante's sureness really didn't match how unsure Arex was feeling about this.

GHOST's frown deepened, looking at Arex demandingly. "...what?"

"I-I don't know either…" Arex snuck in, hiding more of herself away in her shrinking shoulders.

Dante let out a sigh. "I keep forgetting you don't know what I do… Nevermind that. Considering you're… hopefully friendly and not some spiteful program sent to do me damage, ask next time if you want to know something. Speaking of asking, who even made you?"

"Classified."

"Are sure you want to play that game with me? Like I told the little bird, I have my methods of finding out things for myself. And not all of them are pleasant," Dante replied.

"Who I am, what I do, and who I report to are on a need to know basis. As far as I'm concerned, you don't need to know," GHOST said in a cold, unflinching tone before disappearing.

"You don't get to just up and leave Ghosty. Come back out."

"J-Just leave her be…" Arex muttered out, hoping to get between them.

"With that attitude, I'd think she's Ray's," he said crossing his arms. "He's an ass, but he's smart enough to make something like her. Maybe."

" _Ray doesn't share."_ Kit signed, sticking another cracker between her lips as she flicked her tails at Dante.

"Ray is Ray. He'd sooner break your crayons and step on them just to spite you," Dante reasoned, stealing another graham cracker from the box between them.

"She's not Ray's," Arex stated evenly, which surprised her. She drew her legs in as she sat on the edge of her bed, scooting herself closer to Kit at its center. "Just… believe me on that. We still have your physical age to worry about right now, and I don't even know where to start. Or what directly caused it."

"Saying anything about what I know is Ascendant level of secretive," Dante cut back, muffled by a crunch of his snack. "So before I tell you, you tell me and you can get all the answers you want. Deal?"

"N-No deal. I've already sworn my secrecy to her, and I can't break that," Arex answered earnestly, wrapping her arms around her legs as she pressed her chin into her knees. "Unless you're talking about something else?"

"I already know what you are, little bird. Why do you think I've been using the moniker this whole time? I just want to hear it straight from the-" he paused a moment. "That bit wouldn't work really since you aren't really… you know, horse-like… But you get the point."

She… didn't get the point, but she nodded anyway. "I-If you already know, then why do you want me to say it?"

"Because then again, I hear it straight from you. Unless, you want me to give you a poke to the forehead to find out that and more?" He lifted his hand as he said that.

Kit's hands suddenly reached forward and covered Arex's forehead from behind, glaring at Dante from over Arex's head.

"Relax little fox, it would have been painless anyway. And wouldn't cause brain damage since I've long perfected it," he stated.

"I… still don't think she'll trust your word about that," Arex muttered, staring apprehensively at Dante.

"She and everyone else apparently…" he said, looking off to the side.

Kit moved to Arex's front now as she dropped her glare, opening Arex's enclosed legs to fit herself into the phoenix's lap and continue her snacking. " _Why do you want her to say it so bad?"_

"She tells me, I have the privilege of knowing for myself, and saying I was right, and covering for you whenever the opportunity arises," Dante replied in an overly reasoning tone. "It's more of a personal thing. Besides, it's the kind of thing where you build foundational trust. I get this one thing confirmed for me, you get specialized access to a lot of what I know. Again, win win."

He kept pushing this… and Arex wasn't sure how much of her curiosity would actually be sated if she just gave in.

She didn't even know why he was making such a big deal out of this either, if he already knew.

She wrapped her arms around Kitsuki's small waist and rested her chin defeatedly on her partner's slender shoulder, giving Dante an unsure and meek gaze. "If you want me to say I'm a faunus with wings that bad, then fine. I said it."

"Har har, but that's not what I meant, so don't give me that sass. I did a lot of reading when I first got here in the event I… needed to do a few things here and there to ensure my safety and my partners. And boy oh boy, reading what I did sort of tipped me off to you. So, cut the nonsense and confirm it for me," he countered dryly.

Arex's eyes were growing more and more narrowed as he spoke, eventually averting them entirely as she hid behind Kitsuki's hair. She hid her face deeper and deeper into her partner's shoulders and neck. "Y-You… want to know exactly what kind…"

Kit's ears flicked up at that comment, feeling her own attention suddenly snap back into the conversation as Arex's discomfort only grew.

"These eyes of mine see a lot more than you know. Hiding it from me does you no good," Dante said, his voice getting more and more firm. "If I'm to trust you and spill my guts about certain matters, it's only fair you do the same for me in this one instance. And seriously, mind you."

Despite his words, Arex still dipped her head further and further away as her encircled arms grew tighter around Kitsuki's narrow waist, voice muttering out almost passive-aggressively. "What does me being a Phoenix have to do with you telling me how to fix your problem…?"

"Nothing. It just allows me to fully trust you now with potentially dangerous secrets. Because if you don't know a few things about what I know, how are you supposed to understand what I'm trying to talk about?" he asked.

Arex just pouted and buried her face into Kitsuki's neck, the kitsune signing in response now to try to respond for her. " _She never told me exactly what she was, but I figured it out over time anyway. So, she trusts you enough to say this much… Is that enough?"_

"Works perfectly well. See? Was that so hard? I trust her all the more now." He gave a small smile, but Arex didn't see it. "Even with the secrets that are completely mind shattering to anyone else. Point is, you're part of the few people now I completely trust. Congrats. Membership pin will be mailed to you within the week."

She didn't sound very welcomed, or rewarded with any of that. If anything, she felt more vulnerable now that more people were starting to know what she was. "Can we just get to the part where you explain how I can help you and I help you? Please?" Arex asked.

He let out a sigh. "You guys are just plain boring sometimes… I basically need your help, and yours too if you can manage," he said, looking to Kitsuki, who curtly nodded back, "to be two things for me. One, people that can assist me as competent helpers. And two, act as study buddies in a sense to see what mystical nonsense of doodoo I might have stepped in if tracing my steps back doesn't work. And… I need you to shield me from Nosferatu if he decides to mess with me…"

" _That's three things."_ Kit pointed out.

Arex quipped in anyway, not wanting anything else to be added to the list of things they needed to do for him. "We can handle that. We don't exactly have something better to do right now, and you do look like you need our help. So, we'll see what we can do. But I can't exactly promise that we're even remotely capable of keeping Niro away from you if he wants to track you down."

"With you there, he won't even think about messing with me under your protection. As to afterwards… That's a whole different matter… Now that I think about it… I might just be able to take him on…" he said with a devilish smile. It looked arrogant on him with his black hair, compared to what it must've looked like paired with white instead.

"Please don't challenge him," Arex responded, peering fully out over Kitsuki's shoulder now as she looked at the young Dante. "I don't know exactly how strong you are in this state, but I still don't want the kingdom being leveled while everyone's around."

"Kingdom?" he said scoffing. "Sure. Let's go with that. But no, I wouldn't do that anyway. Too much of a pain in the ass."

A breath of relief left Arex's lips as her arms went laxxer around Kit's body, something that drooped the kitsune's ears. "That's good then, at least. Where do we start?"

"Downtown Vale. Catch." He tossed her something from his pocket.

Kit reached up with a swift hand to catch the small object flung at them while Arex yelped and pulled back slightly, the kitsune pulling it out of the air to turn it in her grasp.

They looked like car keys.

" _Who's driving?"_ Kitsuki asked.

"Well, I guess you now since you caught them. Congrats."

Kit casually tossed the keys over her shoulder to Arex, who thankfully recovered enough by now to catch them herself.

"And just when I was about to see something magical today… Fine. Guess it's up to you now little bird," Dante disappointedly said.

The phoenix just breathed out in mild annoyance at how often he was using that name for her, hoping he'd at the very least drop it when they were in public. But she gripped the keys a little tighter and glanced to her scroll on the nightstand.

She'd only driven cars remotely… never directly. So trying to drive a car she's never been in, seen, nor felt before really wasn't going to end well.

And with Kit not wanting to, and very likely not even knowing how to, Arex just frowned for a moment before asking someone who actually _could_ do what Dante asked.

"GHOST, can you drive us?"

The AI in question slowly materialized with her small arms crossed, giving Arex a cocked look with an unamused face. "What's in it for me?"

"Pride in the fact you helped three people in need, and comfort in the fact I won't ever try to zap you for intrusion ever. And you know, other benefits," Dante offered.

"Threatening me won't incentivize me to help you," GHOST responded, shifting her weight ever so slightly on her holographic pad.

"That wasn't so much a threat as it was a simple statement. But whatever, details. You do us a solid, I can do you a solid. Doesn't matter what or when. Even in the middle of the night since I never really sleep."

GHOST slowly turned to Arex questioningly. Almost as if expecting an order.

Arex's gaze grew more apprehensive. "You can take his word for that. We can figure out what that kind of favor can be later as well, I just think we should get going sooner rather than later."

"Are _you_ asking me to drive? Or is _he_ asking me to drive?" GHOST asked snarkily.

"I-I am, if you're fine with that," Arex returned, and after a moment, she caught a tiny nod from GHOST's end in response to it.

Then the AI disappeared.

"Now we should probably head out, in case anything else comes up," Arex said, turning her gaze back to Dante before reaching for her scroll and holographic projector.

"Right… Death by hugs if Inuba decides to search for me…" Dante added in. "You know how I say she's stronger than I am?"

" _I've never heard you say that,"_ Kit signed.

"Even if you didn't know before now, it's a fact. And one I've never once joked about. Ever. In the History of everything," Dante said.

Kit nodded in almost confirmation of what he said. _"You haven't joked about it."_

"R-Right, let's just go," Arex muttered, sliding Kit from her lap as she got off the bed herself. Her eyes then fell to her boxes, and a half-hearted gaze turned to Dante. "One more thing…"

* * *

Anoel and Lylac were shown to a table for two.

It was… awkwardly immaculate, but it wasn't uncomfortable. The only thing that particular feeling arose from was the ankle strapped black heels Anoel was wearing.

They were _not_ comfortable. But she could walk in them alright, for what it was worth.

And this?

This date was definitely worth it.

"Fancy," Ly commented idly, as the hostess walked off after laying their menus down.

"Very," Anoel returned, happily pulling out Ly's seat as she turned to look at her. Soft music played throughout the low-light, candle-lit environment.

Live music.

The tablecloths were pearly white, creating a beautiful contrast between black glass vases, white roses, and glinting candles throughout the ostentatious environment.

Even the glossy dark wood felt smooth and sturdy under Anoel's touch, the chair's backrest running down into black velvet cushioning for Ly to sit on.

"Shouldn't _I_ be the one pulling out _your_ seat?" Ly asked as a smirk curled across her lips. "You're still injured."

"Doesn't matter," Anoel replied curtly, a soft smile curling across her own lips as she took a step toward Ly and silently asked for her hand. "Come on. _I'm_ the one taking you out. It's my job to pull out your chair and make all the efforts."

Ly let her hand slip into Ano's as the woman slowly sat down once she was led to her seat. "How noble of you."

The info-broker couldn't help but lean down with an amused chuckle to kiss Ly's cheek. Her fingers traced down Ly's arms for a moment to let her eyes appreciate Lylac's body in that slender dress again.

" _Well_ , you went to the effort of putting your hair up for me," Anoel whispered as she brushed the edge of Ly's ear with her cheek, hands working their way up to gently brush the length of her date's long ponytail. "The least I can do is treat you with all the love and affection you deserve."

"By finding the most expensive restaurant in Vale, making me a custom dress, and helping me into my seat… I guess that works," Ly listed off audaciously as she let her pink eyes roam over Ano.

"And I'm only _just_ getting started," Anoel replied cheekily into Ly's ear, finally leaning away to pull her own chair out and seat herself. The table was small enough to keep them close together, despite being opposite each other.

Ano would've moved it right next to Ly's side if it wasn't.

"Is it bad that everytime I look at you in that dress all I want to do is take you by the hips and kiss you?" Ano asked teasingly, but with a nervous breathlessness in her words as her gaze fell on Lylac's. She was being serious with her tease too. Earnest, even.

Ly's cheeks dusted a little red at her statement, her chin dipping ever so slightly as her smile widened. "You've had plenty of opportunity so far… I don't know what's holding you back."

The phoenix hummed lightly as she rested her chin onto her interlaced fingers, gazing almost longingly at Ly across the white table. "I _would_ , but I'd be doing it all night and might ruin our dresses trying to get you out of that one. _But_ , maybe a few kisses won't be so bad…"

"You trying to court me too?" Ly replied as she raised an eyebrow while bringing her arm up. She curled her fingers over her developing smile. "You're really going all out tonight, huh?"

"I think we're brave enough to go all the way after the first date," Anoel teased under her breath, her eyes entranced by the way Ly's pink irises reflected their table's candlelight. "But I want the date to come first. I want it to be special."

Ly rolled her eyes a little as her smirk visibly widened through her delicate fingers. "We've already been there and done that _plenty_ of times for us to comfortably ignore it."

Anoel's own cheeks dusted pink as she averted her eyes for a moment. "We have, but…" she trailed off, narrowing her eyes thoughtfully.

They _had_ , but… not like this. This felt different.

"Good evening. My name is Sapphira, I'll be taking care of you two today."

Ano's gaze trailed back to find a young woman standing next to them, crystal blue eyes gazing politely between the two of them.

"Have you been to Agila's before?" she asked.

Anoel's own eyes traveled down the waitress's clean suit for a moment before finding her eyes again beneath dark brown hair. "No. But I've heard good things about it."

The info-broker didn't want to mention the small fact that she knew the owner personally.

"I travel a lot, so this is my first visit," Ly said courteously as she smiled softly at the waitress, pulling her head away from her hand to regard her fully.

The young woman nodded before smiling warmly. "Well, feel free to ask any questions you may have. I'm here to help you with whatever I can."

Ano pulled her own chin from her hands as she dropped them into her lap, regarding the girl with a cheekily devilish smile.

Something Ly snuffed out with a minor glance her way.

What? She did _practically_ say 'anything'.

"Shall we start with something to drink? We just had a shipment come in with a new variety of wines carried from Cynthia just this morning."

Anoel hummed lightly, reconnecting her gaze with Ly's for a moment after the previous one put her on an invisible leash. It looked like Ly was leaving this up to her.

"Ice water will be fine, honey," Anoel spoke softly, giving the waitress's crystal blue eyes a sweet smile. "I'm a bit of a lightweight, so I really shouldn't be having alcohol tonight while I'm on a date."

She was lying, of course. Ly was the lightweight.

The thief shook her head slightly with a knowing smile before turning to the waitress. "I'll have whatever the establishment recommends with my meal."

"Oh, well maybe just a little bit won't hurt," Anoel tacked on with a quirk of a delicate brow, contradicting what she'd just said. "We'll share a few glasses."

"Remember now, you don't get a straw for this kind of drink, Ano," Ly teased as she cast her rose gold gaze to the phoenix.

Ano just smirked at that and voiced a small chuckle. "I was going to sip the wine anyway. But, that _does_ make me curious."

The info-brokers eyes turned to the politely waiting waitress at their side, a reserved but ready to help gaze meeting it from the girl catering them.

"Do you have those little black straws bartenders like to serve with their mixed drinks?" Anoel asked, lightly resting her cheek in her hand as she gave the girl an intrigued look.

"We do. Would you like one?"

Ano's eyes cast to Ly again as she voiced her reply. "I would love one."

The thief immediately rolled her eyes in response.

"Okay. I'll start you both off with some ice water and bring out the wine when the meal comes," the waitress stated lightly, clasping her hands in front of herself before eyeing the two of them politely again. "Is there anything I can get you to start you off? Maybe some appetizers?"

Anoel's eyes drew back to Ly's again as the two shared a glance, a small smile quirking as Ano turned it back to the waitress with an answer.

"Do you have any cheese sticks?"

The girl parted her lips just slightly to reply, but Anoel couldn't help but feel a little amusement in seeing the waitress close her mouth in a wordless moment of being taken aback.

It was a precious sight, but Ano and Ly wanted cheese sticks.

"I can have some prepared," the waitress finally said, forming her confused lips into a smile again. "What kind of cheese would you like? We have a fine assortment on the menu for you to choose from."

"Cheddar's fine. We're pretty low maintenance," Ly answered the girl with a sickeningly sweet smile, something Ano could die for.

"V-Very well."

 _There_ was that stutter Ano was waiting for.

The phoenix's smile widened just slightly as the waitress gave the two of them a look of politely hidden but assuring confusion.

The waitress eventually found her voice again. "Would you like a little something to dip your appetizers in?"

"Do you have sour cream?"

"W-We do."

It may have been a little mean to the girl, but Anoel found it adorable. Besides, she knew a particular owner was very much aware of her current presence in his establishment.

She figured it'd be nice to send him a message.

"We're happy with just that to start us off, _Sapphira_ ," Anoel said, donning that sweet, polite voice again as she lightly tapped the side of her cheek with her idle fingers. "We still need some time to pick out some meals to share."

Sapphira calmly nodded before giving a small bow, heading off with their current orders.

Anoel's eyes quickly made their way back to Ly's own with a smirk, stifling her amusement behind her hand as her irises brightened. "Does this make us bad people?"

"We're the equivalent of sharks, and she had a papercut," Ly calmly returned, letting her head fall back into her palm, her fingers gently curling over her lips again. "She's pretty though."

"She is," Anoel returned, but her gaze strayed away from Ly's amused gaze to trace the delicate contours of the thief's cheekbones down to her cutely hidden chin. She let that gaze stray even more as it slipped down Ly's slender neck and over her visible, _very_ kissable collarbone. "But it was hard enough looking at her when all I wanted to stare at was the gorgeous woman I'm on a date with."

"Considering my semblance has been scanning you this entire time instead of my _other_ surroundings, I guess you could say I was rather distracted myself," Ly countered coolly. The smirk hidden behind her hand widened further.

"I hope I'm not _too_ distracting," Ano hummed as she curled her own fingers in front of her lips, trying to hide away a faint blush dusting across her cheeks. "Like what you see?"

"I dressed you up in a sparkling garment to make you more attractive, so I should hope I do." The girl flashed Ano a little wink at that, letting her fingers rest snugly against her cheek, revealing her grin.

"It is a _very_ nice dress, and soft on the wings might I add," Anoel returned. Her voice was feathery and light, punctuated with a little, invisible ruffle of wings in the ebony surface of the back of her dress.

Where her exposed feathers melded perfectly with the silk of her backless attire.

"God I just wish I can have you as my appetizer instead…" Anoel sighed, tilting her head to gaze more at Ly's reddening face across the table. "Is it wrong to call you too perfect?"

"No… but you can if it helps," Ly replied lightly, her eyes averting for a moment to glance at the white rose between them. Their soft pearlescent stare returned to Ano as her cheeks deepened in their flourishing heat. "I'm sat in one of the most respected and high-class restaurants in the entire kingdom, but you're the most priceless thing here. I feel spoiled."

Anoel could gaze into those colorful, reflective eyes all night if Ly let her. But as she watched them with her own forming blush, she saw a crystalline shimmer flow through the thief's pink irises.

Something she hadn't seen them do before.

"I don't think I can ever spoil you as much as I want to, not as much as you fully deserve," Anoel spoke softly, starting to use Ly's words against her as she sighed. "And I don't know… I thought _I_ was staring at the most priceless gem in here."

Ly let out a quiet sigh as her smile brightened, revealing her teeth as it turned into a bashful grin. "I think we could spend all night throwing compliments at one another, huh? This is already more than enough for me. Even if you _did_ get your ass handed to you, I think you've done more than make up for it."

Anoel's smile faltered, soft eyes averting again as she kept her curled fingers in front of her lips to hide it. "We undoubtedly could. But… it's nowhere near enough…"

Ly's gaze became sincere as it bore into Anoel. "No, it is. I've had more fun today than I've had in the past four months. Regardless of the circumstances. In my eyes, you've made up for it."

The phoenix's gaze eventually drew back to find Ly's again, a small smile forming, but a nervous one. "Is it wrong that I want to say it hasn't? Just to have more nights like this?"

She liked spoiling Ly. She wanted to. And she deserved it. But… Ano didn't think this one night was enough to make up for what happened.

Especially since she was still making up for everything else Ly had done for her…

"I'm going to be staying in Vale permanently, Ano…" Ly whispered softly as her gentle gaze fell into an affectionate one. "I'd rather not do so by myself."

A small spark of gold filtered into Anoel's pink eyes as she sighed again, meeting Ly's gaze with an uncertain, but attemptedly teasing one. " _Ly_ , is that you extending an offer for someone to share your apartment with you?"

"I was given two keys when I bought it, if that's what you wanted to hear," the thief replied as her grin returned. "It's a pretty big place for just one person."

Anoel's mixed eyes merged in a brightening combination of gold and pink, a small smile forming now as she moved her hand to her cheek.

Finally revealing the parts of herself she'd been hiding.

"I'd love to share it with you, if you'd let me," Ano spoke softly, a hint of excitement in her voice.

"That's what I was asking for," Ly returned earnestly.

Anoel's excitement only rose upon hearing that.

* * *

"Poor girl…" Skyla muttered quietly.

I knew her eyes were fixed on the little chestnut-haired fox faunus on the ground, soft red dress dirty from however long she'd been on the road for. Traveling with _these_ guys.

Maybe they were faunus traffickers. Maybe they were just doing this for the fun of it. Or maybe the girl was actually one of theirs.

How should I know? They were all human, save for the four-year-old curled up on the floor, holding her ears flat against the top of her head. Our own conversation sat in silence for the next few minutes.

The men had all taken their seats at the barstools by now. Free drinks in their hands, and ignorant of a damn lion in the room.

"There are a lot of girls in her position. She's not the only one," I idly spoke back, keeping to my drink. It was just the reality of the situation. But my jaw unconsciously tightened at the boisterous chatter getting tossed around from them. Their voices filled the air far more than ours did.

They'd apparently been traveling for three days now. Came all the way from a human villa to escort back a kidnapped faunus girl.

They were huntsmen. And proudly corrupted by greed.

Instead of bringing her home, as tasked, it was suspiciously looking like they were planning to sell her to a trafficking ring inside the city of Vale. Probably for a higher price than what her faunus family was paying for.

A quiet sigh blew out of Skyla's lips as she watched the group across the room, our waitress busily working away at their orders. Apparently, she wasn't _allowed_ to serve anyone else while they were here.

And we were out of whiskey.

The girl across from me moved her legs over our lion, his body lying comfortably on the floor now that he'd finished his meal. She stood herself up calmly and dusted her leggings off beneath her black-to-purple short-shorts.

Before she could utter a word to them, though, I stood with a quiet creak from the floorboards, abandoning my empty drink at the table.

Her gaze shot to me, but I grumbled it away as I crossed the room. My steps weren't exactly silent, far from it, and I drew the attention of all four huntsmen as I walked over.

The man who'd been pushing the faunus girl around jabbed the one next to him with his elbow. "What's with this guy? He got a problem or-"

I calmly stepped over the girl curled up on the ground and plucked the man up off his stool, keeping his windpipe nice and crushed beneath my hand around his neck. His legs immediately kicked the stool out from under him as he grabbed tightly at my arm, crashing his seat to the floor in his alarmed flailing.

"My _problem_ is I'm thirsty," I stated evenly, lowering my choking hand down to my side as I dragged the huntsman to a large front-facing window. "And that's my waitress you're ordering around."

His fingers clawed at my glove as I crushed through his aura.

Having a little trouble breathing there, buddy? Here, let me help you.

I dragged the man up from the floor again and turned my gaze to a watching Skyla, holding him out in a silent gesture to make sure she was paying attention.

"You said you wanted to know how I fixed my glass?" I asked. She distractedly nodded at me as the man's dangling legs kicked desperately at my side. "Here's a demonstration then."

I let the man's throat go and drove my leg into his side, sending him crashing through the window and straight into the fountain outside at the center of town. It'd be pretty pathetic if he drowned in water as shallow as that.

"H-Hey!"

The strap of a rifle clanged and drew taught as I turned my attention to the three standing up from their stunned silence. What, did they all use rifles now?

Skyla crossed the room this time and tapped the man's shoulder, his wide eyes turning to her. And she smiled innocently as his cheek squished into her prodding finger.

"Hey there, can I try something with you?" she asked playfully, resting her hand atop his pointed rifle.

The other two huntsmen quickly reached for whatever rifles they had strung over their backs as Skyla redirected the one she held, pointing it to each of the men in front of her.

Without the trigger being pulled, she drove two bullets into each of them, four concussive blasts echoing in the quiet room as her targets' bodies shimmered in protective aura.

"Y-You'll-" "P-Pay for that!" they yelled, pain still reeling from their chests. Aura protected from harm, but didn't quite erase the pain.

"Awe, just like you'll pay for your drinks?" Skyla asked, giving them a sweet smile before taking a tighter hold of the rifle she held and knocking the butt of it up into its wielder's chin.

I watched his head snap back from the impact before the brunette happily broke the strap connecting it to its owner. Then took a batter's stance to wind up and slam the weapon into the back of the man's head, breaking the gun in half and throwing his shimmering body into the two others.

"So, just gonna stand over there?" she asked calmly, tossing the broken barrel she still held over her shoulder. Her eyes fell on me by the broken window, where shards of loose glass were slowly fitting themselves back into place.

Reversing the same animation they fell into when the window broke around the first man's body.

"I only wanted the one," I replied, gesturing to the man lying in the fountain outside.

"Awww, so you're not gonna show me anything else?" she whined, making her way around a scared faunus on the ground to stand over the mess of three bodies groaning on the ground.

One of her steps 'missed' and landed with a crushing sound between one of their legs, a faux apology slipping from her lips as she crouched down. Aura or not, apparently she can bypass that through sheer touch. Unless they were out of aura already

"Isn't one trick enough?" I asked instead, watching as she reached down with her hands and pat the heads of two groaning souls.

"Not until you explain it!" Skyla called back, smiling all the wider, devilishly this time as she gave the two beneath her a wicked grin. "Hey there, you two. Can I ask you something?"

The pile groaned again, still out of it. One voice of the three much higher than the rest.

"What was that? I can't hear you over the-" She took the two heads she was petting and slammed them against each other, breaking through their aura and concussing them into unconsciousness. "-sound of two empty rooms saying hi."

Well, I guess that left the man she stomped on. The lucky one at the top of the pile, curled up in the same exact position they all left that faunus girl in.

Speaking of her, my gaze turned to see if she was still on the floor, but a grimace settled over my face when I saw her curled up in a large mass of white fur. Icy blue eyes calmly regarded us as a deep, reverberating purring slipped into the room from the lion's body.

Apparently, he thought it was necessary to protect and comfort the girl wrapped in his paws, the two lying together on the floor.

Try not to scare her even more, Icy.

"Aaaand, that just leaves you," Skyla proclaimed, standing up from between the legs of her last victim. She held up her finger once his pained eyes met her, that smile still playing over her lips as she opened her mouth again to talk.

That smile unexpectedly fell, and the tone she used breathed a chilled, icy poison I didn't even know she was capable of. Her entire, playful facade fell in just one long sentence.

"Give me the address of where you accepted this job, and I won't castrate the four of you in your sleep and bury you alive tied up and tied down in the rocky bed of the nearby river."

Every word dropped like a hammer over a line of stakes.

It wasn't even a question from her this time. There wasn't a choice in the matter, let alone an obvious door out of her demand.

Something she reinforced with a deathly shadow passing through her usually bright, twinkling amethyst gaze.

To sum it up, she got the address and broke each of their weapons and scrolls. Now the four men all sat tied up and stripped in the fountain outside, lien piled high on the bartop. They were all alive and breathing, but still unconscious.

And now, we had a little addition to our booth. That addition in the form of a young girl sitting in a white lion's mane, playing softly with his fur.

"No, it doesn't work like that." And here I was, stuck _explaining_ what I did with the window to Skyla as she fed the girl a newly ordered bowl of chicken noodle soup. "Objects like that tend to remember the state they were in before being broken."

"You are being _super_ vague with your words," Skyla replied, eyes distracted on the young girl she was tending to. Her voice was back to normal, and quite frankly, I actually _preferred_ this light counterpart to what she used before.

This version actually had life in it. A soul. The one she used earlier lacked both of those, and deeper than that, lacked a shred of morality.

The combination breeded a feeling of deadly intent without the girl even trying. And here she was now, making funny faces and nuzzling the faunus girl's cheek every chance she could while she got her fed.

At least the young girl was smiling back with perked ears, hazel eyes bright and content.

"Then maybe you're just not thinking into it enough," I replied in a forcibly calm tone. With that girl here, I was watching how I worded things. "You should know this yourself because you literally _feel_ the atomic structure of objects through your semblance, but you know how everything has a defining structure?"

The brunette gently slipped another spoonful into the girl's mouth before humming in thought, tossing a momentary glance my way. "Nope."

 _Liar._ "It's like _that_ , except I don't need to have an idea of what that structure was like."

She hummed again as she plucked her spoon out from the fox faunus' small mouth. "Then why mention it?"

"Because all I'm _doing_ is reverting an object _back_ to that state. Back when its bonds _weren't_ severed," I explained.

"So you can turn back time?" Skyla _apparently_ mastered the art of looking confused while piecing everything together in her head.

I tightened the grip of my refilled drink and glared at the brunette. "Not the way I'd word it, considering it's a lot more limited than that. Not to mention the window of time it needs to even be done."

"But you can totally smash something then bring it back to the state it was in before you smashed it," she quipped back, stirring up another spoonful of soup for our young guest. The four-year-old's chestnut fox ears perked again when Skyla fed her the next bite.

 _Damn it_. Why the _hell_ were kids adorable…? Why couldn't they just be ignorable ugly trolls all the time?

"You know, if I didn't know any better," Skyla commented, my eyes shooting away when hers glanced to me. "I'd think you had a soft spot for kids."

"If you mean I won't kill them, then you're not wrong," I dropped a few octaves in my response, dropping a few more when a certain lion chuckled in a growl beside the table.

Oh just do your _job_ and keep that little girl raised on your head.

A long, antagonizing hum slipped from Skyla's sealed lips before she smiled at me. "Okay. Next question."

Great. There's more.

"What's with those bright green strings of yours? And that glove?"

Don't touch my glove.

* * *

"So… how did you want to interface her?" Arex asked, watching as the small Dante climbed into the open door of his car and started looking around. Thankfully, he agreed to carry her boxes out to GHOST's care before taking her to his. The AI's vehicle was sent back to the Vault for the time being.

"Easy. Plug and play. Like that stupid thing called the Switch," he replied, opening a lid beneath the central console.

"And… she'll have full control?" Arex asked again, moving forward to lean into the open door to see where she needed to plug in her scroll.

"Pretty much. When I do plug her in, I'm just hoping she doesn't try to kill me out of spite. Not that she can, but… it'd be annoying to deal with. Sort of. Maybe. I don't know," he said as he rummaged through the consoles insides. "Where's that interface slot that vampiric bastard mentioned…?"

The sound of another car door opening caught Arex's ears as she looked up past Dante, seeing Kit plop herself down into the shotgun seat as she stared down at her own scroll.

"Vampiric…?" Arex couldn't help but ask, sliding her scroll forward across the dash for Dante to grab as she let her gaze wander around the rest of the car.

"Undead, superhuman assclowns that drink people's blood and get stronger for it. Only way to kill one is by destroying its heart entirely or just eviscerating the body to kingdom come. Take your pick of which method I used."

"Sounds hard to fight them," she spoke softly, glancing over to spot Kit holding up the number two with her free hand. "But I take it you did the latter?"

"Yup. Though, Howling Dark didn't only slice them up like Christmas turkey, but also burned away any trace of their bodies down to the last molecule. That way they can't come back."

Dante's voice spoke out through his rummaging, a small spark emitting from where his hands were digging into.

"They're not all bad. My friend is one and is part of the first and most prestigious family clans. Needless to say, his help was invaluable. He's also the one that bought and customized this beauty of a machine."

She… wasn't exactly the biggest fan of cars. She had wings, so, it kind of felt off being so anchored to the ground like this.

"I prefer the Interceptor prototype…" GHOST mumbled, standing in the palm of Arex's hand from her projector.

"Interceptor?" small Dante asked.

"A prototype vehicle. Built and maintained by yours truly," GHOST replied, flashing a small smirk. "I _would_ go into technical specifications, but I don't want to confuse you."

"Confuse me, huh? Alright…" Dante muttered.

Arex kind of prefered the Interceptor too… since it was sleeker than this. But Dante's was nice too, just more family friendly with more seats and space. And had a retractable roof.

He stopped working for a moment and grabbed Arex's scroll from the dashboard, bringing it back down to what he was doing.

"Considering under the hood it has a rearward-housed, low-profile, liquid-cooled, hydrogen-injected internal combustion engine with an infinitely variable transmission, and _this_ has two engines, I'd take that over this anyday," GHOST proclaimed.

Arex was an engineer, so she understood the majority of that… and she honestly would prefer that too, if she got past her discomfort of being grounded. Still, she didn't exactly know anything about the slick vehicle sitting pretty in front of her either.

"Hmph. Cute," Dante said, grabbing a connector wire from the glovebox and quickly plugging it into a small, flat, rectangular black box with numerous wires emerging from its back. "Make sense of any of this, and you can ask me to do almost anything for three days," he said, plugging in Arex's scroll to the other end of the wire.

They were having a car measuring contest… But if she was being honest, she'd probably sway toward whichever one could take flight.

"Is it ready to go once that's in?" Arex asked.

"Give her a sec," Dante said with a smirk, snapping the wire's connector into the scroll.

"Almost done," GHOST said as soon as the connector was in, the engine struggling to start up with the sound of her voice. "It's taking me longer than usual, but that's to be expected, given this… _foreign_ technology. I'm having difficulties translating the firmware. I'm also still working on it, but I have to get basic functions down."

At the sound of the engine starting to run, Arex watched as Dante's smirk faltered slightly.

"Huh… I was maybe expecting a complete connection in 2.87 seconds, but… Looks like you're slacking a bit, Ghosty," he commented. "You sure it's as inferior as you say it is?"

"What was that? _You_ want to drive? By all means," GHOST replied snappily, her holographic avatar closing her eyes in concentration.

"I'd do it myself if I wasn't the bite-sized version of the usual me. But since neither of these two want to drive, I'm asking you to do it while also slightly poking at you a bit. Seriously, there's literally no humor with any of you guys. Maybe her, but…" he said, nodding to Kitsuki.

One of Kit's tails flicked as she shook her head, pointing at Arex before folding one of her fox ears. _"You just have to get to know her."_

GHOST's avatar flickered for a moment as she stood on Arex's palm, the phoenix starting to get a little worried that she was overly concentrating.

"Then shut your mouth and let me focus," the AI said.

Dante let out a sigh as he leaned over to Arex a bit. "My AI friend is much better. And humorous. And friendlier."

He had an AI friend too…? Arex quirked a delicate brow before glancing back to GHOST, gaze softening. "Not that I'm biased, but I am. And like Kit said about me, you just have to get to know her."

"Kinda hard to do that when she's being all curmudgeon like that. And possibly contemplating how to murder me," the young Dante replied.

"You can start with being a little less poky with her?" Arex offered.

"What? I can't help it. It's like I have this itching compulsion to poke at people being hostile with me."

Somehow to prove a point though, Arex watched as Kit reached over to lightly poke Dante's arm, flicking one of her other tails as she did so. Though, he immediately poked back.

"See?" Dante voiced, looking at Kit now.

When Arex glanced back to her palm, GHOST's avatar was cycling through several colors, still flickering slightly every few seconds. "Well, your AI friend doesn't have to rewrite their own software to interface with a car, right now, so I'd appreciate it if you'd give me a moment to concentrate."

The boy looked back and gave a sour look. "He wouldn't have to, but… Whatever, sorry."

The engine ceased momentarily before immediately firing to life, GHOST's eyes opening with a smile. "Got it."

"Wonderful," Dante said as he unplugged the scroll, placed it back on the dash, then dug into the glove box again to pull out a black card.

He placed the card in the slot next to wired cable's slot, removing that soon after, and shifted the box back into the console before closing the lid.

"One more thing now…" he said, bringing up a holographic display with his hands. "Can I get a direct line with you for a few seconds?"

"As in a call?" GHOST asked.

"Good one, but no, not what I meant. I need you to connect to my scroll to download the continued permissions code I put in. Please," he added quickly.

"Sending them to Arex will allow me to download and use them," GHOST explained evenly. "I'm not downloading myself into your scroll for that."

Arex just nodded to that, glancing back to her scroll he was still holding before shifting her weight slightly. "GHOST's protecting everything on my scroll as it is, so it's under high security. If that's what you're worried about."

"It's not that I'm too worried about it. The permissions code is like a special access key signal that'll allow a driver to run the car," Dante explained. "Without it, the car would only budge ten feet. Even then, the code needs to be continuously inputted again every set amount of minutes to keep it running. Otherwise, the car will stop running."

"She can just download it from my scroll then," Arex continued, not liking the idea of GHOST needing to directly link herself to anything just for a download. "File size doesn't matter as well. I gave that scroll as much storage as I thought I'd ever need."

He let out another sigh. "Make my job harder why don't you…"

" _Your_ job harder? I just rewrote my entire system to operate your car, the least you could do is send one file," GHOST replied, folding her arms and frowning.

"Did I mention if the code isn't properly sent or transmitted it'll blow up someones scroll? A single digit of code is all it takes."

"Just transfer it. The scroll you're holding can handle it, you just have to send the proper code," Arex responded instead. She knew what her scroll was capable of, and what it wasn't.

But she spent years fine-tuning that device and upgrading it, she'd have hoped that he'd recognize that. Even a little bit.

"Little bird, little bird… You make me sound like such a simple person if you think I'd store the code on the device… I'm doing this from memory if you didn't notice my fingers moving faster than a drug addict playing a violin. Brilliantly might I add," Dante returned.

"I've stored your data in my databanks, Arex," GHOST cut in, watching Dante now as well. "Just in case he messes up and blows your scroll up. And me along with it."

Dante's eyes narrowed in focus. "Really stressing me out right now!"

"Thank you," Arex nodded to GHOST, then spared a glance back to Dante typing away at his own device. "And it can't be that hard to memorize something for you."

He chuckled briefly with a stressed tone. "Again, I'm not such a simple person."

"Whenever you're ready, we'll be right here," GHOST responded, materialising a magazine and chair in the process.

A few more seconds of typing and he closed the screen, letting out a huff of air as he slouched back in the seat and dragged his hands over the face.

"Almost messed up… Damn these tiny fingers of mine…"

"If we place him in soil and pour water on his head, do you think we'll get the _real_ Dante back? I don't like this one," GHOST asked, turning to look up at Arex.

Arex just shrugged. "It's our job to figure out how to return him to normal, so I guess we can't rule anything out."

" _I wanna help bury him,"_ Kit signed, adding her little input from the passenger seat.

"Laugh all you like…" he said, moving himself to the backseat to allow Arex in the driver seat as he buckled his seatbelt in back. "But none of you would like the _real_ Dante."

" _But nobody was laughing,"_ Kit signed again. " _And you wouldn't like the real Kitsuki either_."

"The _real_ me is a lot taller than this version…" GHOST added.

"Sure. Joke around about it all you like," he said, leaning back in his seat. "But that'd probably be the worst case scenario for everyone alive…" he muttered to himself silently in a serious tone.

Arex just glanced curiously to Kitsuki, looking past GHOST's avatar she placed down between the armrests as she climbed into the driver's seat.

She… wanted to know if Kit was serious about that, but all Kit did was offer her a small smile and a shrug of a single slender shoulder.

Then she looked away.

"Are we ready yet?" GHOST asked the occupants of the vehicle as her digitized magazine disappeared into thin air.

"Y-Yeah," Arex muttered, eyes still gazing at the side of Kitsuki's averted face before turning to the steering wheel. "Yeah, we're ready."

"Seatbelts on, hands on the steering wheel, don't touch anything else," GHOST directed, standing at the dash now.

"Are you sure you want me touching the steering wheel while you drive?" Arex asked, shutting her door before pulling her seatbelt into place.

An action Kitsuki mimicked in her peripherals.

"You just gotta make it look like you're driving, to ensure no one starts wondering when self-driving cars started shipping out," GHOST explained.

R-Right, she probably should've figured that. "I can do that, then."

"Good. Now, it would be nice if we had a destination," GHOST responded, all but eyeing Dante in the back seat.

He only raised up his hand to bring up the holographic screen again, then pushed it away from himself towards the holographic display of the central console. Coordinates appeared on a map with a path to follow.

"Downtown Vale," GHOST's projection nodded, crossing her arms as the wheel turned and the handbrake disengaged. The car started to move forward with a ghostly press of the gas pedal. "We'll be there in twelve."

* * *

 **Whew, plenty of scenes to follow. Hope something's there for people to take an interest in.**

 **More stuff on Niro and Skyla next chapter. Anoel and Lylac are acting like kids who've never been on a date before (because they haven't). Arex, Kitsuki, and GHOST are getting pulled into a mysterious quest from Dante. And one omake.**

 **For now,** _ **Favorite**_ **and** _ **Follow**_ **this new story.**

 **I look forward to seeing** _ **REVIEWS**_ **for this. You'll be introduced to a LOT of concepts of mine. Feel free to give me your thoughts.**

 **Cya XP**

* * *

 **Omake:** _by Xera Stark_

* * *

"Okay, hold still," Skyla said, a look of focus on her face.

Niro nearly crushed his glass of whiskey again, staring up at the brunette's face as she leaned over the table toward him. "I'll bite."

"If you bite me, I'll bite you, and then we'll just be eating each other," she replied in a simple, knowingly innocent voice. Two cute legs dangled down from what she held over Niro's head before a red dress fluttered into view. "Now, don't move…"

"Moving." Niro tried to slide out of the booth, but only butted heads with a white lion. The cowboy's lime green eyes shot into a narrow glare as the white grimm pushed him back into place with his nose, purring out a chuckle.

Right back into the intended target range, too.

Skyla smiled widely as she plopped the little chestnut faunus down onto Niro's shoulders, sitting back in her seat with Niro's stolen cowboy hat. "Perfect!"

Niro's face was dead. As dead as his soul. While the girl on his shoulders smiled happily and stuffed her hands into his black hair, kicking her cutely dangling feet at either side of his head.

Somehow, the sight was still cute. Skyla was pretty sure the cute waves coming from the fox girl were overpowering the waves of death pouring from Niro's unamused face.

With a slow, minuscule movement of his hands, he stopped the girl's cute kicking with a light grab of her small ankles.

"I'm taking her off," he deadpanned.

"Wait wait wait wait wait!" Skyla threw her hands up and quickly pulled out her scroll, stopping Niro for just long enough to snap a picture and giggle. "Okay, you can take her off if you want. She'll probably cry, though. She likes it up there."

"She won't cry," Niro's dead voice spoke again, his hands moving from her stilled ankles to tuck beneath her arms. Her fingers clutched at his black hair when he lifted her, and when he looked up, her face scrunched up with her hazel eyes starting to waver and glisten. "You're _not_ crying."

She cried.

Niro begrudgingly set her back down on his shoulders and kept her there.

She stopped.

Skyla giggled at the whole display, a small blinking red light shining from her scroll to indicate she'd been happily recording the _whole_ thing.

"I think she likes you," the brunette chirped happily.

Niro's dead voice came back. "I hate you."


	52. Unraveling

Rogue Huntsman

Unraveling

«»

"Can you only make wires?" Skyla asked, knife and fork now in her hands as she cut a carrot apart. Apparently, the fox faunus liked carrots.

"No," I answered blandly.

"So… you can make other stuff?" she asked.

How intuitively stated. It's a wonder people think she's an idiot. "I can."

"You just like wires, right? In a wire phase?" Skyla pressed, setting her knife down.

"Not a phase. Just a method," I replied. And before I gave her another chance to ask an overly simplified question, I elaborated. "Singular strands tend to be more versatile and tensile, and harder to break and sever when bundled. It's why ropes and coils work effectively."

"Oh, so you're totally into the whole 'stronger when working together' spiel. I like that in a person," Skyla said, pressing her cheek into her palm again before lightly plucking up a carrot bit with her fork.

Our chestnut-haired adopted faunus popped her small mouth open to let Skyla feed her more. Other than that, she kept a wide eyed, curious stare that bounced back and forth between whoever was talking.

 _Damn_ that gaze… it was _aggravatingly_ adorable.

"Doesn't always work. People tend to get more in the way of each other than be of mutual benefit," I replied back, tryingmy _best_ not to spit venom with that kid staring at me like that.

"People always let you down, huh?" the brunette asked lightly, plucking up another bite-sized slice of carrot when the young girl stopped munching and swallowed.

That was an understatement. "Not everyone." My thoughts immediately turned to one person in particular, even if she had moments where all she ever did was let me down.

She was the one person I actually depended on, in that way.

"Who's the lucky few?" Skyla asked suddenly, her eyes brightening in attention. She looked like a prairie dog whose name was just called. "Do I count? Am I in there? I bet you I'm like-"

"You're not."

"-fifth or something. But okay, that's fair too," she finished, squishing her cheek back into her hand as she fed another carrot to the fox.

That all didn't go to say I can live without depending on others. It was always grating to know I was cursed with a Semblance that functioned around the very thing I despised.

"You know," she started again, turning her amethyst eyes to me. It was alarming, in a subtle way, to be able to recognize the moments when she suddenly dropped the act and touched on a more serious subject. It was the same feeling you got when something wasn't a joke anymore. "Most people have weapons that enhance them, not limit them."

I wondered where she even managed to draw that conclusion, with the random bare bones nonsense we'd been chatting up for the past few hours. "What makes you think mine works differently?" I was genuinely curious how she came to that, and the feeling pissed me off.

Why the _hell_ did I care about that?

"The way you use it," she explained, and it only raised a thousand other questions in my mind. And she _knew_ that too, with that sickeningly sweet smile of hers. "When you threw that guy through the window, you pushed your Aura into him. It was the only way you could transfer your energy into the window's broken glass to fix it after shattering, using his physical body as a carrier."

My eyes grew dark beneath my hat. But a startled gaze from the young pair of hazel eyes staring widely at me immediately brought me to sever that looming shadow over my face, my hand reaching up to lift the lip of my hat.

Albeit _annoyedly_.

I didn't know which side of Skyla I hated more. The side she didn't take seriously… or the side she did.

"You've limited yourself to just one point on your body where you're allowed to release Aura. And in doing so, you can only do it in strands," Skyla continued, making all the right assumptions _somehow_. And I counted all of it to her being able to read me like a book. "Those strands are your way of threading your Aura into your surroundings. Through the air, through objects, it comes down to the same effect with whatever outcome you want it to result in. Reinforcement, weaponization, creation, temporal tampering, it all starts with that glove."

I watched her sigh, my gaze staying piercing but neutral as I attempted to glare without boring a hole through her. Not for _her_ sake, but for the hazel eyes still staring warily at me in innocent uncertainty.

Skyla sighed. "Makes me wonder why you keep it on, if it's just a limiter." Her voice carried a genuine curiosity as she settled the weight of her head back into her hand, gaze sweeping aside.

"Maybe it's not for a good reason at all," I said, feeling the severity of my gaze fall away. The way she was piecing all this together… made me wonder if she figured all this out today. And just how terribly effective she'd be if she ever took up a job under Anoel and her information network.

All of this… It was all for Skyla's personal interest. Not for lien, not for anyone else, just her going about her day, thinking about her life. She caught all this with a glance at best.

Exactly how much was she capable of… if she actually dug for this information?

"It's from your father, isn't it…?" she asked, calmly plucking up another carrot bit.

She figured that part out too, but I blame her stalking me to their grave for that one. "Like I said, not for a good reason at all."

"But it is, isn't it?" Skyla deflected, giving me an unreadable gaze over her arm as she lifted it to feed the young girl beside us. "You wear it because it connects you with him. It's not like that bar you run, something you can't take with you. It symbolizes something. Like he used it to teach you a valuable lesson, and you're still trying to figure out how to learn it."

I felt my glove tighten beneath my clenching fingers, the fabric of Ahrulian pulling taught against my skin as Aura flooded down into the cloth. This whole conversation… _all_ of it… made me wonder where, how, and why Skyla became this way.

Where did all of her come from, _how_ was she so perceptive, and why the hell was she bothering to do _any_ of this with someone like _me_? Someone whose first thought upon meeting her was why she had the death wish to come near me.

The first thing she did that day was spin my banter around to take control over a downward spiraling atmospheric fear. She took a situation and _fixed_ it because nobody else was doing it, or capable of doing it.

She filled the role of the fool so fluidly and easily, it was hard to realize how much of a genius she really was. How smart she really came across as.

And this whole talk gave me even more reason to firmly believe if you had so much as a single loose seam in your exterior, this girl was capable of tearing you apart with a single tug of that hanging strand.

"It was his last lesson," I finally answered, letting the Aura accumulating in my palm recede back up my arm. With it, I exhaled an invisible breath.

"I wish I could've met him," she murmured. It wasn't like the false sympathy she gave me back at the obelisk. It was a genuine desire coming from her this time, and the unreadable gaze in her eyes slowly turned away to feed another piece of carrot to the fox. "Your glove has nothing to do with your Semblance, from what it looks like."

' _From what it looks like'_. Exactly _what_ does it look like, _Skyla?_ "You know, I haven't exactly seen you use a weapon in all this. But I bet it doesn't have anything to do with your Semblance either," I cut back. Not everyone had something that amplified that side of them, just extended what they could physically do as a person.

"You use it to extend your Aura, but also limit you. Which leaves me to question what exactly is powering your Aura up as much as it is," Skyla explained, keeping her gaze on a set of attentive hazel eyes this time. Staring at the girl with distant affection. "Your Aura gets stronger through the people around you… doesn't it…?"

I think I made up my mind about which part of her I hated most.

 _All_ of her.

And she was putting all this together… _how_ , exactly? "And how'd you come to that?" I asked, through grit teeth.

"When I first saw you at Beacon, you were really irritable. Like the place physically made you sick," she said, her gaze slowly tracing down our fox faunus' hazelnut hair. "It looked like you were acclimating to the place somehow. And over time, you actually got more approachable."

She smiled, and the fact I still couldn't read into her made it all the more annoying. But it wasn't her perception that kept aggravating me.

It was the growing respect I was building in regards to her as a person.

 _That's_ what was pissing me off the most.

"I figured it was just the people, and you hated people," she offered, and she had every reason to believe it was as easy as that. But it wasn't. "But… you don't actually hate people, do you…? You just hate new people. You hate needing to _adjust_ to new people, because everyone's different to you. It's not like how people are different to me or anyone else… Just, to you, everyone has a different taste to them that effects you in one way or another. Weak and powerful alike."

This was what she was putting together today. _This_ was why she was tagging along with me. I was just another mystery to her…

And she solved it by the end of a single day, just by interacting with me.

"It explains why you hesitated down in the ocean, when the water was collapsing in. You knew you couldn't protect me, so you ran. My Aura wasn't enough to give you that kind of boost." I watched the way she blinked, talked, fidgeted, _breathed_ , and it all came down to a single word. She was calm. _Bored_. Like all this, at the end of the day, wasn't what interested her. "But at Beacon, you were able to protect the entire school from a sieging Dremoha."

She'd caught _all_ of this, and more. And I had nothing to say for it.

Because she saw straight through me.

"That leaves your restructuring of molecular bonds through backtracking time as just a capability of your Aura, then. Like what you did with that window and your glass," Skyla concluded. "It has nothing to do with the Semblance itself. Just a property of who you are as its owner, whose soul generates the aspects of that energy in your Aura… The same way not all Aura can heal as fast as others, and not all can deflect damage or regenerate as effectively. Everybody has their unique special properties…"

Her gaze turned to me when she said that, and for a split second, I managed to read a single emotion resting inside her amethyst eyes.

Intrigue.

After all she said… _that_ was the only thing that intrigued her? Was that the _only_ thing about me she didn't understand?

"Oh, shoot!" Skyla suddenly gasped, and I blinked in silence. _Just_ like that… the entire conversation's mood shifted back to where it sat before. Back when it all didn't actually matter. "She ate the entire carrot already… Do you think she's still hungry?"

We both looked at the hazel eyed fox faunus as she swallowed down her last bite, looking back at us as innocently as she did before Skyla fed her that carrot.

She ate two more.

* * *

Arex finally took her hands off the wheel when the car pulled up to an abandoned diner, veering away from the mostly empty streets behind them.

It was rundown and boarded up. And it looked like it hadn't been used or refurbished in the past decade, considering the outdated style Arex recognized.

Her eyes drew past Kitsuki's curled up frame to lean over their two seatrests, peering through the kitsune's side window to see the brick walls crawl by as the car drifted slowly into the alleyway.

"So, this was where it… happened?" Arex asked softly, being careful not to wake the kitsune sleeping on her heated seat.

Again.

She really liked seat warmers.

"It happened in the alleyway. It was like… a radial pulse. Flash of light later, and I'm five again," Dante said.

"Just like that?" Arex asked lightly. She would've thought it'd be harder to cast any magic on him.

"You sound surprised."

"You just seemed more resilient, is all," Arex offered back, turning her gaze to the backseat now that they came to a full stop.

"Given the way my body is, I do have incredibly high resistance to magic." Putting it… lightly, she guessed. "But there's exceptions at times. While I do have my natural resistance, higher tier magics still affect me, not by much mind you. Even so, when there's magic like this involved meant to directly affect the body, it'll work only the one time and never again afterwards."

Arex pursed her lips a little as she put that together in her head. He had an adaptive immunity of some kind?

To magic too, no less?

She was a little envious, despite how little magic she was exposed to. Or, at least was consciously exposed to.

She was pretty sure she wasn't quite cut out to resist any kind of spell… or magic… or really anything remotely harmful to her body except fire, actually.

She really wasn't resistant at all.

"Despite the fact that you'll be immune to it once it wears off, _assuming_ it'll wear off," Arex started, drifting her strayed gaze back to Dante, "it was still powerful enough to get past your normal resistances to begin with? Are we up against something that strong?"

And in this area, too? If they were even still here?

"My body's built up against high offense magic, the really destructive kind. Fire, lightning, wind, ice, you name it. Trapping magic isn't as much of a priority in comparison, so it'll work briefly. This kind of thing that happened to me is more along the lines of prankster nonsense. So either someone did this to me on purpose, or I might have tripped some weird lingering spell defense."

Arex wasn't sure where her Affinity fell into that category, or if it was any kind of magic at all. It… really didn't feel like it was.

At least, not in the way Dante was associated with.

"If there are traps, will you be able to sense them now that they're here?" Arex asked, knowing full well she lacked any kind of capabilities of doing the same.

"Unfortunately, my sensing skills are subpar compared to my partner's. At best, I only excel at detecting life within a short distance, which has been the only thing I've ever really needed in fights. Despite that, I'm pretty sure that was the only trap. Maybe," he explained, glancing out the window.

Another reason why it would've been better to have brought Inuba with him than Arex and Kit. But she at least understood why he was avoiding her for now.

Given his current state.

"I… really don't want to become a five-year-old. Or even younger, since my magic resistance is probably pretty abysmal," Arex replied, lowering her gaze as she situated herself back into the driver's seat, keeping her leg folded under herself to stay turned toward Dante. "Is there a chance there's any residual heat those leave? Or the magic in general?"

She can at least sense that.

"Considering it wasn't a landmine spell trying to blow me up to kingdom come, I don't think so," he said, opening the car door before stepping out. "Relax little bird, I'll walk in front."

Arex was still unsure why she was here, then, but she nodded her head and drifted her gaze back to Kitsuki. The white fox was still fast asleep in the passenger seat.

"GHOST, will you look after her?" the phoenix asked softly, popping the handle to her door as she pushed it open.

"That's my job, isn't it?" The AI responded courteously.

Arex smiled lightly to that as she stared down at Kit's sleeping face again, then pushed herself onto her feet as she stepped outside.

Dante walked around front and tapped at GHOST through the windshield. "And don't do anything stupid that'll mess up the car. It's from a friend, so I'd rather it be in one piece, understand?"

"You mistake me for someone incompetent. Messing with the car could hurt Kitsuki, and _that_ would be a breach of protocol." The AI crossed her arms and appeared on the hood of the vehicle to stare at the boy disdainfully.

"I was talking about the systems, but sure, take it that way then," Dante retaliated, turning to walk off.

"Don't tell me how to do my job then," GHOST replied harshly.

They were… really at each other's throats.

"After your maker's latest blunder, I don't have much confidence in his ability. Or anyone allied to him for that matter," he said back.

Arex gave Kit one more look before closing her door, keeping the action quiet to avoid waking her.

"Come on, we've got work to do. You can fantasize about petting her and stuff later," Dante said, nodding her way as he walked into the alley.

"I'm just… worried," Arex muttered. They were in an alleyway, in downtown Vale, with a potentially powerful magic user sitting around with a possible interest in Dante. Whether that was a good or bad interest, it still left her partner in a vulnerable position. "Can GHOST drive her around while we're here? She'll keep nearby, and it'll ensure the car's not just sitting here while we walk around."

He glanced back at her, and she almost expected an irritated glare from him. But it was just a neutral stare. "Fine, she can do that. Now let's go already. The longer we wait, the worse off we are."

The car slowly started pulling out of the alleyway as Arex turned around, starting to follow Dante further into it. "I don't think I like the sound of that…"

Was he _expecting_ to run into the person responsible?

"Figure of speech little bird, not meant to be taken literally. Now quit acting like a pigeon and calm down already." He looked back at her, and she wondered if it was to check if she was following closely or not. "I may not look it, but I'm still damn tough despite being bite-sized."

Arex frowned a little at that, not sure if he really just meant it as a figure of speech. "I can't help it, I don't like alleyways."

The phoenix looked behind them for a moment to see the path clear of any car, GHOST having driven off already. So she quickly caught herself up with Dante and fell in line behind his smaller stride, glad that it was at least a slower pace than average.

"Are you always this jumpy?" he asked.

"N-No?" Arex tried to offer, but knew it wasn't at all convincing.

She just… had bad history with alleyways.

"Just relax already, it's not as if some interdimensional demon is just gonna rip open a portal and drag us through. Unless… What day is it today?"

The girl's eyes immediately dipped to the ground as they walked, feeling her body tense up as they walked further into the corridor.

"C-Can we just focus? What exactly are we looking for?" Arex hurriedly asked, not wanting to think about what Dante just said. She was tense enough as is.

"Jeez… You people need to relax…" he said with a sigh. "Abnormal residue, slivers of floating energy, etc. Just about anything very out of the ordinary."

Arex internally whined at his first comment. She'd love to relax, she really would. But she hated alleys like this. She didn't have the same safety nets Dante did, so the only reason she felt even remotely safe here was because he was with her.

And he was actually competent in fights, or any other kind of intimidating situation.

She wasn't.

"Will I be able to see them?" Arex asked distractedly, trying to shift her focus back to the task at hand as she started paying closer attention to their surroundings.

"That you will. Stuff like this is visible to anyone unless it was specifically cloaked."

Arex slowly nodded her head as she dropped her gaze ahead of them, trying to make out any kind of glints of light or color in the shadows of the alleyway.

She was starting to think that finding it wouldn't be so easy, though.

"Where did the last one go off?" Arex asked. "The one that turned you into… well…"

She switched her gaze to him for a moment before sighing at her lack of words. "A kid."

"Around where I'm standing…" he said, stopping ahead of her to stretch out his arms before he started searching the alley floor. "But what was weird about it was that the pulse was already about halfway when it reached me and it kept expanding further outwards."

"So, you weren't at the epicenter?" Arex asked, confused. She came to a stop as she scanned the walls with a curious gaze. "As in, the pulse came from somewhere nearby?"

Was this a kind of magic that can travel through matter? Like walls?

"From what I can remember, it sort of spread out from this side." Dante moved his hands toward the wall of the diner, drawing Arex's gaze to it as well.

"If the pulse came from inside, then it might not have been targeting you at all," Arex said, roaming eyes catching sight of a partially boarded up window before making her way over to it. "Unless it was an indirect trap of some kind that stillhad your name on it, but was somehow triggered through a wall."

"It doesn't have to be specific targeting though. It could have very likely been a proximity based spell, where if someone else unfortunate enough walked through here like I did, they'd be bite size instead."

"Why would they prime the spell inside then if it gave its pulse a higher chance of missing and hitting someone random?" Arex responded, eyes peering through broken glass between a couple wooden boards to see a dark, empty room on the other side.

Other than the fact it looked creepily rundown, it didn't display anything out of the ordinary. All it did was play with her anxiety.

"Unless it was in defense of something?" Arex continued curiously, leaning away from the window again.

"I was just about to mention something like that. The way proximity spells work generally is by detection of abnormally high levels of… well, I guess it's appropriate to call it Aura now since that is basically what it is instead of the older term we used," Dante voiced back.

"So, Niro would've set off the entire block then…" Arex muttered, stepping away from the wall to make her way back to Dante. "If it was in defense of something, then it was pretty poorly designed if it gets triggered by people powerful enough just passing by outside. It only attracts attention in that event."

"To clarify, it wouldn't have spread throughout the block, just the small area around the diner. Secondly, it may have been attuned specifically for especially high Aura Reserves, like mine or Niro's. Which means someone could have been having a bit of an issue with someone really powerful and didn't have time to attune the spell to a specific Aura Frequency."

"So, it's getting more likely that this wasn't targeting you at all. And I wasn't talking about the singular pulse," Arex clarified in return, stopping beside him as she turned her gaze back to the diner. "Niro's Aura kinda… permeates a lot. It's not contained. So, if there were any other traps in the area, he would've set them all off, even if he was two blocks over."

She frowned for a moment though as she looked to the window again, fighting back the urge to bite her lip.

"We're… going in there… aren't we…?" she muttered hesitantly.

"You really need to chill out little bird, otherwise your heart might actually explode like a pigeon's from being intensely stressed out. Relax, even if there were ghosts or spirits inside, they'd sooner screw off than come into contact with us. So long as you stick close to me," Dante reassured.

She… really hoped he was right with that. "Sorry. I'm just… not good with these kinds of situations. It's hard for me to relax in them."

She'd been focused enough to be distracted from those feelings just a moment before, but they were quickly coming back with the prospect of going inside.

Dante stifled a sigh. "You have a ridiculously hard to kill, bite sized hellion on your side. What're you so afraid of?"

"T-The fact that this hard to kill hellion is with someone who's afraid of her own shadow and can't fight to save her life?" Arex offered with an awkward chuckle, nervously tucking a strand of hair behind her ear as she eyed the diner's dreary window. "Who also doesn't have her weapon with her?"

"What kind of weapon do you use?"

"Sword," Arex replied instinctively, voice still meek.

Dante extended his hand and instantly formed a longsword of blackened Aura with a white outline.

Arex's gaze stared down at it for a few moments as she traced its dual edge, something she wasn't used to. But, she was more confused by the color of it.

"I thought your Aura was white on the inside… and black on the outside," Arex murmured, remembering back to when Anoel showed her footage of the Drakian Hydra fight.

"My Aura used to be jet black with a white outline when I was younger. That, and it actually turns this way when I use my… special ability."

"That's… not cryptic at all," Arex replied with a slight shaky inflection in her pitch, considering she didn't know what that special ability was. "Does it have to be double edged?"

Anoel was always better with using dual edged blades. Arex on the other hand? She always… lacked in the capabilities it took to wield one.

She wasn't strong, and she definitely wasn't confident enough. So she stuck with single edged longswords, something she can actually apply some amount of leverage to from the back of the weapon.

"Ah, you're a single edge type," he stated as the blade morphed to have a single sharp edge with a very slight curve near the tip.

Y-Yeah, she felt more comfortable with that design… now that she knew she wouldn't be cutting herself with its back edge.

Something that happened a lot when she tried to block with those types of swords.

She was never really strong enough for that. Her body was always in the way of her own reeling sword when the deflection was heavy enough.

"Yeah. I'm not really capable enough to use two edges," Arex explained, gently taking the handle of the offered weapon into her hand.

It was… weirdly cold, for an energy-made weapon. And it felt about the same density as her own lightweight weapon.

Which was a good thing, actually, because the glowing sword was quickly growing familiar in her grasp.

"This is just in case. Might be something weird lingering in there. Like a ghost, or a godling," he commented off-handedly.

"Do you really think something's waiting in there for us?" Arex asked, letting the tip of the sword fall toward the ground as she drew it down to her side. For something made of energy, she was curious how he even gave it weight.

"No. Well, not really. But like I tell everyone, never underestimate stupidity," he advised, conjuring himself a sword. "Or surprises."

She… figured that was a possibility then, and they needed to be ready for it. "Better prepared than not, I guess."

She was still hoping he'd lead the way, though.

A quick swing of his smaller sword and the door fell apart in pieces, allowing him to step inside.

"Come on little bird. Nothing will bite you so long as I'm here," Dante said. His voice was almost echoing off the walls inside. "Well, they won't bite me at least. They'd still be less inclined to bite you though."

"That still doesn't inspire much confidence in me, considering you just called me little again… and you're tiny," she replied, following him in with cautious, almost ghostly, light steps. "But I guess you're still easily stronger than me, even at five years old."

"Meh… It's not so much to do with that really. I may be short, but you're still the younger sibling of an older sister. Hence the 'little'. That, and The Hound is a kickass person to quote on occasion."

She got the little part, at least. But, "I don't know who that is."

Arex kept her voice quiet as she glanced around the abandoned diner, dim rays of light slipping through the cracks in the boarded windows as she grimaced. It smelled stale in here.

And she wasn't really keen on making her voice any louder as they got further in.

"Pretty dark in here…" Dante, on the other hand… didn't share the same concern. "Hey, how good is a phoenix's night vision compared to other Faunus? Good? Bad? Meh?"

"It's… better, I guess. But that's only because we can more acutely differentiate the heat between objects and pick up heat signatures," Arex replied quietly, flinching slightly at the echo of Dante's voice through the room.

"Ah, gotcha. So do you have one of those Affinities or whatever they're called?" he asked, completely out of the blue.

Arex paused slightly in her step as she brought her gaze to his back. Was he really asking a question like that here? "W-Why do you ask?"

"Well if you're Phoenix, there's obviously something else special about you, depending on how you see or use the word special. I only learned about Affinities this week, and got attacked by a user a few days ago. So yeah, I'm mostly just curious," he said, playfully twirling his sword about as he continued walking ahead.

"Just because I'm a phoenix, doesn't mean I have to have something special about me," Arex replied in a soft tone, resuming her steps again as Dante made it further into the ruined room.

It hadn't looked like this place was used in forty years. And its interior style was even more outdated than the exterior, too.

"Back where I'm from, you'd be considered a mythical being of a high caliber. Almost demi-godish really. So of course, I'm making an assumption there's something special with you too," he stated, jumping onto one of the seats and looking over the counter.

He placed his hands on the bar-like centerpiece of the room, what she could see as kitchen supplies and a door to a back room situated just around it. From what she could see through its doorway, even with night vision, was completely pitch black.

Which _really_ didn't sit well with her.

"I… prefer not to really think of it like that," Arex replied, slowly approaching the counter. Her eyes traced the booths lining the room by the once clear windows, worn red cushions and white tables now aged against the walls. "I'm just a faunus."

"Just a faunus she says…" the little Dante replied, hopping down behind the counter. "The people I've encountered used to say something similar. 'He's just a nobody. What can he possibly do?'. You know where some of those people are now?"

Arex was more distracted by the fact that Dante was slowly getting closer to that door leading into the back, her own body tempted not to follow as she stopped just at the counter's edge. Her only response was a little shrug.

"Well… to put it bluntly, those who were quick to make underestimations fell the hardest. Bad example, I know, but I guess what I'm saying is that you shouldn't sell yourself short," he said, glancing back at her. "There's all sorts of great things you can do. Good or bad."

She… didn't think that example fit at all. "You're starting to sound like my sister," Arex muttered, eyes falling back to the counter as she started working through her options.

If he went inside, and she stayed out here, she'd honestly feel more in danger alone in an open room than following Dante into a dark backroom. To put it bluntly for herself.

Her lips drew into a thin line before she lightly placed a hand on the counter, swinging her legs over. Her sneakers landed with a quiet tap on the other side a moment later.

She really didn't like this place.

"Huh… What might you be...?" she heard him say, and she immediately snapped her gaze up in a flare of nerves.

It was… a sphere of black that bobbed and weaved quickly through the air ahead of them. A faint glow of white emanated from various places nestled inside it.

"Y-You were serious about the ghosts…" Arex quietly murmured, eyes locking as best as they could on the little wisp.

"Not sure if this is a ghost or not... Will o'wisp maybe?" he pondered, bringing a hand to his chin. "No, not that either…"

"You don't seem at all weirded out by the… floating… black ball… thing?" Arex asked, more rhetorically than anything else. What scared her was how quickly it moved.

"Something like this isn't uncommon. Trust me, there's much worse out there." He briefly looked back at her again, then to the room. "No signs of sentience either… Maybe it's the source of the singularity?"

Arex grimaced with a sheepish smile, having happily lived in ignorance for as long as she could. She's seen what Grimm and bandits could do.

That was more than enough for her.

"Have you considered the fact that it might be luring us in?" Arex countered quietly, feeling even more dissuaded to move further in after knowing this was definitely the right place.

"No... For starters, it isn't showing signs of sentience. Secondly, if it were trying to lure us in, it would have used anything from an illusion to a sound to draw us in closer. So far, nothing has moved inside the diner except for ourselves and what we moved. No alternate sounds or noise besides our own."

Arex still wasn't at ease, but she got behind Dante's reasoning for no other reason than to _try_ to calm her nerves down a little bit. This thing laid traps, one of which triggered when Dante was just walking down an alley.

She didn't want to see what else it could've left in wait. Especially if it was defending something inside.

"Are we going in there?" Arex finally asked, bringing her gaze slowly back to Dante as the tip of her sword pointed to the dark doorway.

"Of course," he answered easily. "If it's just a reactionary spell, dispelling it should fix this. Problem is that I needed one more person, since at this age, practical spells weren't exactly my forte. In short… I need you to touch it."

A sudden pit formed in Arex's stomach as she gulped, eyeing the bobbing ball of energy with a sudden look of apprehension and queasiness. "D-Define… touch."

"As in touch it. With your hand. And the thing called skin surrounding your hand," he explained bluntly.

S-Seriously? "Are you sure I… have to…?"

"I just need you to help out by putting your Aura into the catalyst I make. Once that's done, our Aura's will double-bond and form the entire dispelling procedure and erase… whatever this is. Simple."

Simple to him, maybe…

The phoenix bit her lip for several long seconds of thinking anxiously about this. In her head, touching this thing was out of the question. It was some kind of energy, it _couldn't_ have been safe to touch.

But he mentioned he had a way to dispel it. And… if that solved their problem… it just meant they'd be getting out of here just that little bit sooner.

"F-Fine, just… let me know when to…" she trailed off, but she knew he probably got what she was trying to say.

"You might be a pigeon afterall…" the younger Dante replied, stepping forward into the room as he approached the floating orb. "Come on already. Let's get this done so I can go play some Grimm Hunter World."

The girl couldn't help but hold her breath as she followed him in, forcing herself to slowly step up closer to the orb as she waited for him to give her some kind of signal.

The sooner they got this done… he said. She could get behind that.

"Alright… I place my hand in first. It'll start wrapping around this thing to form the catalyst basis. Once you put your hand in, just let your Aura flow and it'll automatically fill the rest in. Then everything will be all smiles and ice cream instead of frowns and broccoli."

True to his word, his hand was the first to move, his small fingers grabbing hold of the sphere as darkened light seeped out of the area his hand held.

White and black Aura began to flow slowly, and form various patterns across the glowing sphere's surface.

"Your turn little bird."

Arex stifled her apprehensions with a firmer bite of her lip, mimicking his action, albeit much slower, until her hand was in a similar position to his. She let her Aura flow down her arm a moment later to focus out through her fingers, feeling it drain away from her and blend with the rest of the colors nesting around the orb.

It was… actually kind of pretty, the festering orange light of her Aura glowing through the orb's black and white shell.

"Liar."

The small comment almost broke Arex's focus as her attention switched to Dante, confusion forming on her face. "W-What?"

"'Nothing special', huh?" he replied, briefly flashing a coy smile. "My left foot, 'nothing special'…"

Her confusion only seemed to get worse the more he pressed it, an uneasy feeling immediately settling in her chest and stomach. "I meant what I said, though…"

"As did I," he stated back. "But you didn't need to go out of your way to try and throw me off track. It's not like I'd tell anyone else besides my partner."

"I-I wasn't trying to," Arex muttered quietly, her voice trailing off again as her gaze drifted back to the orb of light. She just… didn't see herself like that.

"I don't take any offense to it. It's understandable given your nature that you'd prefer to hide as much as possible without giving all too much away, be it a built in response, or a traumatic event."

Arex slowly closed her mouth at that, her responses dying into a lingering silence as the hum of energy filled the air instead. He… wasn't wrong about that.

"Still though," Dante continued, "life would be a little easier to live if that tiny assumption of the world being out to get you isn't there. If anything, reach in, crush that idea, and add it to the heap of trash," he spoke forcefully as he squeezed his free hand tightly. "I don't entirely know much about you, but I can tell you're a pretty cool person. And you're in good company as is. Try to relax a little more would you?"

He was right… he _didn't_ know her very well. So, there was no way he'd know… how little of what he just said actually appealed to her. "I don't mind hiding all my life. I've sort of gotten used to it by now, so… why change that…?" Arex asked in a quiet voice, her life having already been spent in that manner of living.

"Hiding isn't an entirely bad way to live. At least, for a little while longer. Honestly speaking though? Hiding your entire life isn't any way to live." His eyes seemed to narrow at her. "It's exactly that, not living. In time, you either fade away entirely or aren't able to remember yourself anymore."

Arex honestly wouldn't mind that, a sheepish smile working its way to her lips as she cocked her head a little in thought. "To tell you the truth, that doesn't sound that bad to me…"

She wanted to forget.

Another sigh escaped the young Dante. "At this rate, I'm pretty sure you're gonna surpass Linkin Park and nab first place for being a depressing person… Listen…" he said, staring at her. "You'll say that now, but once you're completely submerged… I can guarantee you that you'll regret it and look for a way out. And it won't be pretty trying to leave."

Maybe… but she knew, even if she tried, she'd never be able to forget it. It overturned too much of her life to ever let it slip away, no matter how much she wanted it to just vanish.

The orb began to shudder, almost looking like it was about to collapse in on itself.

"Whoops…"

"T-Too much?" Arex figured, her voice getting a little high and pitchy, wanting to pull her hand away.

"Uh… Totally not your fault, practically mine given the… destructive nature of my Aura, but the dispel sort of… transfigured itself?"

"Transfigured?" Arex slowly started to draw her hand back, wanting to clutch it close to her chest as the energy suddenly started to grow rampant. "That's the _opposite_ of dispelling it…"

"What I mean to say is… it's gonna explode."

A blast of black and white blinded Arex as it engulfed both her and Dante almost instantly. She immediately tensed her body, expecting some kind of burning sensation or force, or _some_ kind of injury, but… there were none. Her eyes silently peered back open, immediately glancing over herself to see if anything actually happened.

She looked… fine.

"Well that ever so slightly sucked…"

Her eyes glanced back up to see Dante lowering his arm, Arex's gaze widening at the still sizzling, deeply charred burn running up his forearm, pale skin a deep red.

"Y-Your arm...!" she quickly sputtered, a small flutter of panic hitching in her voice.

"Give it a sec…"

Within a few moments, the deep red char vanished as pale skin once again covered the damaged arm within the blink of an eye.

"Like it never happened at all," he said, squeezing his hand a few times.

Her breath immediately died for a moment as she felt her panic fluctuate, falling away a moment later as she stared. She was… a little envious at how quickly he just healed that away.

And how little he even reacted to the pain, if he felt any at all.

"I guess you weren't kidding about things not being able to bite you…" Arex muttered, recalling what he said on their way in.

"I was talking ghosty goo's or whatever that might be hostile, but I guess that works too," he said, clenching his fist. "And I just realized I'm still mini-me. Great."

"It's probably just a duration thing… or that energy wasn't the root of the effects," Arex tried to offer. Her eyes quietly scanned the rest of him to look for any other injuries, but she couldn't find any.

If he had any other burns, he probably healed them by now anyway.

"Was that the… only energy signature here?" Arex asked, her eyes tracing the walls again, gaze falling over the empty shelves and blank kitchen of the backroom.

"One and only. Come on, let's get out of here."

Unlocking the door of the room they were in, Arex followed Dante out into the stifling and uninviting darkness of the diner. The younger one moved to the front door and grabbed hold of the handle, but when he pulled at it, the door didn't budge in the slightest.

"Huh… Won't… open…" he said, straining himself.

Arex already knew there wasn't any sense in her trying it, but she slowly walked herself over to one of the boarded windows and tried to get a look outside.

The… streets and alleys…

They were gone.

All she could see was a pitch black void.

"D-Dante…? Are you sure that orb wasn't some kind of transportation magic?" Arex quietly asked, voice almost drearily hesitant as she slowly backed away from the covered glass.

"Pretty sure. Why?"

"Uh…" Arex gestured lightly to the window before casting her gaze around the rest of the lightless room, eyes having failed to notice the lack of sunlight earlier. "Just look outside."

The small Dante moved from the door and into one of the booths near him, closest to the window, allowing him to peek through the dusty blinds.

"Huh… How about that…" he commented, sliding out of the booth. "Looks like we just destroyed the world."

"I-I doubt that," Arex managed to get out, her gaze spinning around the room as that panic from before started to settle in again.

"I know. That was a joke. Still though… Could it be an after effect? Or maybe a spell layered beneath the first one?" he wondered.

Arex was clueless here, so all she wanted to do was let Dante think out loud and hope he could figure a way out of this place. "I-It probably happened when the orb overloaded."

"No doubt about that…" he spoke, nodding toward Arex. "Come on, let's go back into the room briefly and see if there's anything in there."

Arex almost couldn't help it when she felt herself helplessly fall in line with Dante again, not knowing what else to do in this kind of situation other than blindly follow the one who did.

But she immediately reeled into her thoughts when she peered over the counter.

Near the doorway of the backroom, a blackened shadow quickly coalesced and formed the figure of a person, a woman.

Long, blackened hair traveled below the waist of the figure, locks braided together into a braid from just below the nape of the neck down to the black ribbon tied into a bow at the tail end of her strands, floating slowly in the air. The rest of the figure's hair above the half-braid remained loose and near shoulder length.

Two perfectly round circles of white light opened where its eyes would have been found, and within an instant, frantically moved closer to Dante and Arex, almost touching them. And she would've if Dante hadn't pushed himself and Arex back.

The small Dante shot his hand forward, but nothing happened.

"Damn it… Run!"

* * *

Ly and Ano were giggling like schoolgirls.

Which drew the attention of just about everyone, but the two under the spotlight could hardly care. Their countless times in Niro's bar built up a rather tough skin to the small crowd of onlookers glancing their way.

Only, this… felt different.

It wasn't flirtatious or promiscuous. It wasn't purposefully devious or sexual. It was just… teasing and tender.

Like this was the most fun in the world. And it was. Especially for them.

"Okay, listen, you need to keep your mouth _open_ this time and _not_ close it around my finger," Anoel complained cheekily, holding up another cheese stick. She'd long since moved her chair next to Ly's, the small table now too far a distance for her.

Ly was trying not to laugh, taking absolutely none of the date seriously thus far. "Then stop trying to stick the _whole_ thing in my mouth!"

The thief had a stupid grin on her face as she kept resisting the urge to burst into a giggling fit.

"But what's the point if I can't get it all in?" Anoel replied, waving the dipped stick around in her delicately clasped fingers. She couldn't drop her own stupid smile, but she wasn't trying anymore.

She loved this.

"Okay, let's try this again," Ano spoke lightly, narrowing her bemused eyes with a barely managed focus. "Open up. Just take a bite this time. I won't try anything."

"How big of a bite?" Ly asked, a small giggle slipping out before she continued. "I don't trust you not to _ram_ as much of it in as you can."

"Come on, you can trust me not to do it this time!" Anoel returned with a barely suppressed laugh, smiling behind her raised appetizer as her focus broke. "I promise. And you can take as small a bite as you want."

"You're lying!" Ly exclaimed as her finger immediately jabbed Ano's cheek, grin widening as she poked it a couple of times. "You have that dumb smile on your face and I've seen it _too many times_ not to _know_ you are!"

"Okay, okay! Here." Anoel broke the stick in half, placing the steaming back end down onto their shared plate next to the sour cream ramekin bowl. " _Now_ will you let me?"

She lifted the other half up as she giggled pleadingly behind it, hand placed down on the edge of her chair to lean closer to the thief sat on her own.

"Okay, fine, go on then," Ly relented, closing the already tiny distance between them some more as she opened her mouth. The corners of it curled up as she fought against her grin.

Anoel immediately adopted her focused look again as she leaned forward, the corners of her own lips already curling as she fought the urge to do anything nefarious.

Or, at least she tried to.

Her smile broke out when she tapped the sour cream covered end of the stick against Ly's nose before slipping it into her open mouth. Her shoulders were already shaking as she giggled through an attemptedly stifled laugh.

"Y-You have a little something on your nose," she managed to get out, grinning like an idiot.

Ly tried not to choke as she stifled a laugh and chewed, trying fruitlessly to glare at Anoel. But with the position she was in, it had no effect on the info-broker.

Anoel broke down into a fit of giggles as she scooted herself closer, placing her hands on Ly's chair to help herself lean into the thief.

"Here," she laughed out softly, offering Ly an amused grin now. "Let me."

She lifted Ly's chin just slightly as she craned her neck a little, lifting her own chin to affectionately lick the small dab of cream from the tip of Lylac's nose.

Lylac recoiled from the lick as her nose scrunched up, trying to chew her food at the same time as she laughed through her nose.

"There," Anoel finished with a pop and a tiny lick of her smirking lips, leaning away from Ly again as she eyed her with amused, mirthful eyes. "I told you I wouldn't do it."

The thief only just managed to swallow her mouthful before her own fit of laughter burst into the relatively quiet atmosphere. "This is _worse!_ "

Anoel laughed in return as she reeled playfully back, looking offended. "What? I have bad aim!"

Ly shook her head as she continued to giggle, a hand lifting up to wipe the tip of her nose as she did so. "Apparently not with your tongue!"

"Okay, that _is_ true. But that's because I've had practice with it," Anoel retaliated with a growing smirk again, happily watching Ly's eyes and face in all this.

"Eating yogurts without spoons again? _Barbaric…_ " Ly replied happily, as her laughter calmed down.

"S-So what? It's less to clean up afterwards!" Anoel defended playfully, moving her hands back to grip the cushions of her own chair again as she re-situated herself. "It's like a fun little mini-game if you do it right."

"Cleaning _one_ spoon is hardly a challenge, Ano," Ly retorted lightheartedly.

" _True_ , but I got really good at cleaning out those little yogurt cups." Anoel's voice grew lighter and airier as she giggled again, trying her best to defend her reasoning here. "And besides, I think it made my tongue a little longer too. Or maybe it just reaches farther..."

"Oh really now?" Ly asked slowly as her grin splayed across her face. "And what _evidence_ do you have to support this claim of yours?"

Anoel's little hum immediately resonated through her pursed lips before she smiled widely, leaning back into Ly's body again to leave the support of her chair and press into her.

"Is that you asking for a demonstration?" Anoel asked playfully, the small of her back arching as she placed her hand back against Ly's own chair. She calmly but _very_ teasingly grazed her slightly parted lips against Ly's bottom lip, fighting back another smirk.

The thief leaned into it, stifling another emerging giggle. "I thought that stuff didn't happen on the first da-"

Their waitress cleared her throat nearby. Anoel's bemused eyes glanced slightly to the side to see Sapphira pointing her gaze down and away from the table.

A strong, crimson blush adorned her cheeks with her hand curled up into a loose fist in front of her mouth in embarrassment.

The other held their tray of food.

Their main course was done.

"I-I'll bring out the wine for you to compliment the dishes," the poor girl tried to speak clearly, but her soft, light voice was dashed with an adorable squeak.

"Ah, thanks Sapphira," Anoel said, her own voice light as she leaned away from Ly and sat calmly back into her chair. "I was afraid our third course was going to take a while."

Ly was Ano's second course, obviously.

This was actually pretty fast. Maybe they were scaring the customers away?

"That's okay, I have a feeling we won't need it for a little while yet," Ly replied courteously, acting completely innocent. As if neither of them had done anything wrong.

Sapphira nodded as she delicately placed their entreés into place before the two women, looking almost shy to step too close to the two.

Especially Anoel.

The info broker rested her chin in her hands again as she gazed in interest at Sapphira's face when she stepped away. "We haven't been a disturbance, have we?"

A delicate brow rose to punctuate her point, and Anoel smiled a bit when she watched Sapphira's features redden again.

"T-The owner says it's fine," Sapphira said, collecting herself after a moment. "It's night hour, so business is slow around this time. He's keen on keeping the restaurant privately open for as long as you need though."

Anoel's lips curled into a slight smile just before she hid it behind curled fingers, humming softly in response. "You can tell him I'm very thankful for that. We both are."

Sapphira nodded again before bowing. Then she stepped away.

* * *

A set of double doors swung open as Arex and the small Dante sprinted down a dimly lit corridor. Something that _wasn't even there before_.

At the end of the tunnel was a blinding light, Arex wasn't even thinking when they both ran straight into it, finding themselves in a darkened, open room. Numerous beds and curtains filled the center of the half-circular room, and at its end hung a large spanning mirror, attached to the wall.

The two looked into the mirror from a distance as they approached it, turning their heads around to confirm the six doors lining the back area where they came from.

"You… You alright..?" Dante questioned between breaths as he looked to the phoenix. "She… She didn't touch you or anything?"

Arex's breathing was sharp as she kept her gaze snapping around, eyeing all the pathways suddenly encompassing their backs as she shook her head. "I-I'd be… a _lot_ better… if we weren't in a horror maze."

Ignoring her comment he carefully grabbed hold of Arex's arm and looked her over, moving around her as his eyes scanned her entire person.

The phoenix's eyes regarded him as soon as he started, her mind still in a rush from the frantic way they ran away from that… thing. "I-I'm… fine. Just n-need to… catch my breath."

And she _really_ needed to catch it with how rapidly her shoulders were rising and falling.

"No curses or anything… Good…" he said with a sigh. "If you got cursed, your sister would've tried burning me alive, and then my partner would have burned your sister. She's protective that way."

"Yeah… they both are," Arex replied, finally managing to level her breathing out as she turned her gaze back to the way they came. "I _really_ don't like it here… What even happened to the diner?"

"Don't know… This definitely wasn't here considering the way we came in turned into this. Even more problematic…" he extended his hand once more, and yet again, nothing happened, not even a crackle of Aura. "I can't use my Aura. What about you?"

Her…? Arex looked down at her free hands as she raised them, pushing her Aura into her finger tips before igniting a soft flow of flames that encircled her palms. "Mine works…"

"Right then… I may look small as I am right now, but I'm still physically stronger. I can handle anything physical if she gets up close. Which means I need you to be ranged. Can you do that?"

"I-I-" Arex immediately locked up as his eyes turned back to her, the small flames she had circling around her hands suddenly dispersing in the same alarm her body showed. "I… can't…"

Her voice sounded as ashamed as she felt by that small response, but she couldn't control her flames beyond the small layer it had over her body.

A huff escaped the small Dante's frame. "Fine then… Can you at least do some up-close damage?"

"T-That I can do," the girl muttered quietly. "But… I've never been much of a hand-to-hand fighter."

Even Dante's given sword was gone too.

"Don't need to be. If she gets handsy, I'll grab her and hold her in place. Then all you have to do is light her up."

Arex slowly nodded to that. If she can get in close, then yeah, she can do that. She just… didn't trust herself to be able to control any fire she releases beyond her actual touch.

That was asking too much of her… and she hated that.

"I don't understand…" Dante spoke.

The girl's lowered gaze quietly found its way back to Dante, before falling on the doors again. "Don't understand what?"

"Why are you so afraid?"

Afraid…? Arex's gaze grimaced for a moment before turning confused, turning her eyes back to the mirror hanging on the wall. "Afraid of this place?"

"That's not it," he said, turning to her. "Why are you so afraid of using your own power? And why are you afraid of reaching out and connecting with others?"

Oh… so he really was referring to that…

Arex bit her lip as she felt the weight of his words settle over her, her fingers playing loosely with her sweater as she tried to formulate some sort of answer.

"I-Is it so wrong to be afraid of hurting people?" she asked in return, her volume dying with the loss of any remaining confidence.

"Of course not," Dante said, staring at his reflection in the mirror just a ways from them. "Recognizing what one's abilities can do is a great step forward in understanding one's powers and controlling them. But you… You're so afraid to use a single morsel of your power past your personal space."

That's because the last time she did, somebody she cared about died. "Can we not get into this right now?" she asked quietly, her voice falling meekly into the stale air.

"If not now, then when? As far as I know, this might be my only chance. So I'll ask now while we have time and since I'm still a brazen brat." He crossed his arms and looked back at Arex, nodding his head at her. "Did you do something terrible? Something you're not proud of?"

The loose, nervous grip she held on the hem of her sweater grew tighter as she chewed her bottom lip lightly, her eyes boring into herself through her mirror's reflection in the darkened room.

It… wasn't something she wanted to talk about.

Not to someone she barely knew.

"We still need to find a way out of this place," Arex offered quietly, still trying to turn away from the questions and just get out. She was already trapped inside a dimension. She didn't want to feel trapped into a conversation where she wasn't comfortable reciprocating in it.

"So it was someone important to you at one point… No wonder." He breathed out, shutting his eyes for a moment. "Animosity. Hate. Anger. Fear. Pain. Being an aspect of the Dark unfortunately gives me the ability to sense all those dark emotions and more, no matter how hard people try to bury it."

Arex's fingers only grew tighter as she felt herself begin to tense, _really_ not wanting to be here anymore. Why couldn't it just stay buried…?

"It's why I caught on to Kitsuki's injury. And it's why I'm slowly but surely learning about the pain that wracks your thoughts. Not a day's gone by where I couldn't feel your pain. Your gestures and facial expressions all confirm that too."

"W-Well… you've confirmed it…" Arex replied in an almost breathless voice, turning a slow, desperate and almost broken gaze back to Dante. "Can we get out of here now? P-Please?"

Why couldn't he just let it go…?

"I don't know how to get out of here yet, so it's useless to rush," he said, then sat down on one of the beds. "So… While we've got some time in this… place, it's best I get to know you a bit more. That, and if you share with me, I'll share something with you. So come on." Dante gestured for her to sit on the bed. "Take a load off before we move on."

Arex actually caught herself glancing to the bed he gestured to, but her mind was still reeling back from him unburying emotions she'd really rather keep stuffed away. And when she turned her gaze back to the dim reflection of herself in the mirror, dark gray eyes stared back at her from the irises framed by her pale face.

Her eyes told people everything, even herself… And right now, she couldn't tell which emotion was stronger in her. Fear… or grief.

So her eyes just mixed the two colors, and that always served as a reminder of what she couldn't hide from people outside of herself.

"I'm not in the mood to share," Arex's dull voice fell in tone as she turned her gaze away from the mirror staring back at her, tracking her eyes over the beds opposite Dante.

They were in a dimension created and contained by whatever shade was following them. There wasn't a doubt in her mind that it knew they were here, so she didn't want to stick around to let it take advantage of that.

"Too shy to start? Alright then… I'll go first," he said, resting his chin in his hand. "Once upon a time, as far back as I can remember, I more or less used to be like you. I know I know, hard to imagine right? Big old Dante, who isn't scared of anything or anyone was afraid of something? Ludicrous!"

Not… really… "You don't even know if I'll share too, so why are you bothering?" Arex asked, her gaze finally falling on Dante again.

"The Fool's hope, I guess," the young Dante said. "I never liked hurting people either to be honest. Even today with everything that's happened, I still don't. I'm only able to put it aside so easily because I have things I want to protect." His eyes moved to her. "I used to kill people for a living when I was younger. All the way from age nine to thirteen. Your sister ever whisk that away from my noggin and share?"

Arex felt her gaze drift away from him as he looked her way, her arms hanging loosely at her sides now. Fingers forgetting they were even playing with the hem of her sweater. "No… she didn't." Everybody's killed somebody.

Even Anoel.

"Twenty two thousand, eight hundred and forty six. That's how many lives I ended in just four years alone with naught but a sword. Safe to say I was very good at my job. Killing people and things came to me as naturally as breathing."

Arex couldn't help but give a partial, dead smile at that, her countenance turning away from his direction again as she looked to the far wall.

He almost seemed proud of it.

She's been alive for seventeen years… and she's only taken one life away. It just so happened to be the only life she wished she could've traded with, because of how much that single life had already given her.

It picked up all the pieces of herself she couldn't gather on her own.

"And all of that was built upon a lie," Dante continued.

"Isn't everything?" Arex murmured, her hand finding its way to her arm as she grasped it lightly.

"Not everything. Where there's as many lies, there's as many truths to the world around us," he quickly answered. "'You're doing the people's work' they said. 'You're sparing the innocent and their future generations from a bloody fate' they said. Of course, the little fool that I was believed in those words. For a long while at least."

It sounded like he wasn't the only one they manipulated, with how he put that.

"It wasn't long before I figured out for myself that I was killing some of those 'innocents'. The weight of it all was so… minimal at the time. My heart was still blackened at that time, you see."

"Did it catch up to you?" Arex wondered allowed.

"Eventually. But before it did, I wandered wherever I could, aimlessly searching for somewhere, anywhere I could call home. But there was nothing. No one. Such a great emptiness formed in me, much greater than anything the vast expanse of space could ever have."

Arex wondered if that emptiness he talked about was any different than what she was feeling… Only, hers was brought about by a single person. Not thousands.

Maybe that distance was too great… to even think about for her...

"Inuba and few others were some of what I left behind. Great and terrible fears just… festered within the confines of my mind. Especially her. Always her…" His voice grew quiet with his last spoken word. "That was the biggest reason of them all. Truthfully speaking, when I stopped wandering, I actually tried figuring out what exactly would kill me. If anything could. As you can see for yourself with me standing here, nothing worked, no matter how drastic and devastating."

That almost sounded like what Niro was going through… but he never found his way back out. If he was ever out to begin with.

"I found a place. A place that was small and insignificant to any other person or group of people. And I found good people too. Unfortunately, unlike now, I wasn't much help to anyone at first when they were in trouble. People hurt people, you know how it goes. And I could do nothing. Rather, I didn't want to do anything at all. Knowing what I could do, how I could break anyone so easily… It disgusted me. And that feeling of disgust was only amplified twofold when those good people were in trouble."

"It's hard to blame you, with what you already went through," Arex replied. But she found herself only saying that to fill the long silence of her wordless responses, more than anything else. She couldn't relate… to anything he was saying.

She wasn't strong. She couldn't even pretend to be strong. She'd been weak all her life, and the only times she felt like she could get past that, were the times she spent with _her_.

"You asked earlier if the life I left behind caught up to me. Well, it did. A special someone, who was always kind to me, and never looked at me differently, even after finding out who I was… paid dearly. She tried saving my pathetic, worthless life. Even if I didn't personally do it, I was still responsible for the deed. My 'life' ended hers, and all because I was too afraid to swing my sword again."

Arex's breath caught quietly in her throat as she tried to swallow. That was the only part she could feel herself relate to, and it brought a sharp pain back into her chest realizing it.

Dante paused momentarily, gripping his hands together tightly as he reminisced about past tragedies.

"It's a funny thing really. People have made so many accusations throughout my life, saying I felt nothing. No pain. No shame. No remorse. No sympathy. But truthfully… I felt more than I ever cared to show, or admit."

Arex… never had that. "How did you get through it?"

"Well… I guess God, or whatever shitty providence that governs the Worlds heard my thoughts for once and took mercy on my existence of pure suffering. Whatever miracle it was, that person lived. I was completely and utterly dumbfounded. I held her hand in a pool of her own blood, felt her skin go cold, heard her heart slowly come to a stop as she took her last breath. She definitely ceased to exist. And then she didn't."

Arex didn't know if she could even call that lucky, or that it was luckier than her story. But the words only brought a numbing cold to her loosened fingers, her eyes drifting down to the ground as every little syllable flashed an image into her eyes from her own memories.

"And then Inuba found me, slapped me, pinched, and scolded me for a whole week. That was probably the most legendary bad week I've had to date. Besides getting stuck in Hell for a few days. But that's a story for another time."

"That was my Anoel, for me…" Arex replied quietly, her voice fleeting in volume. "She's never stopped."

"Scolding you?" the young Dante asked with a chuckle.

"Supporting me," Arex corrected softly, "and loving me."

"Love huh...?" His own voice lowered for the first time as he looked to his hands in his lap.

"Yeah…" Arex muttered under her breath. "She was always there for me, when I needed her."

"I wish I had someone like your sister from the start. But I guess Inuba filled out that role nicely in the time after."

"I… didn't have her from the start," Arex spoke back, her gaze trailing down to her hands as she started tugging at the cloth of her sweater again. "She ran away when I was younger. She… didn't find me again until after what happened at our home village."

"I read about that a few days ago. Bandits if I'm remembering correctly."

"Yeah… bandits," Arex said with a small, tiny nod. "They killed my parents, so Anoel had to take me in. I vaguely remember the look on her face, too, because she looked desperate to find me. We moved into the city after that."

"And? What happened next?"

"I… met someone," Arex replied simply, finally bringing her gaze over to the bed across from Dante. She was actually giving it some serious thought, but her legs were already quietly carrying her over toward it before she could. "She picked me back up after what happened, alongside Ano, and… she did everything I wasn't able to."

"It's nice. Finding someone that helps you with things you're deficient in," Dante replied, but she kept herself from looking at him.

"Yeah, it is," Arex spoke quietly, legs taking her slowly to the bed closest to where Dante sat. She silently took her seat across from him and lightly grasped her arm, keeping her gaze directed away from his. "She was everything I wasn't. Confident, blunt, unafraid to show affection or speak her mind. She… actually reminded me how kind the world can be, and took me to places I couldn't bring myself to go to on my own."

"Inuba was the same with me in that regard," he said with a chuckle. "Without her… I probably would have never realized just how wonderful the world could be. Well, Worlds, in our case."

"She sounds nice…" Arex spoke lightly, wishing her story could've kept hers with her for as long as Dante's did. "Mine was always making sure I was eating. She made sure I was sleeping alright, practically started living with me after she found out I wasn't. Made sure I was finding things I could get interested in, like cooking and baking. Turns out I was pretty good at those… so she taught me."

Arex's voice fell quiet as her grip on her arm grew tighter, and her shoulders grew smaller. "She… showed me how to live again."

"I see… Sorry if I sound insensitive or anything, but… what ended up happening?"

Arex's volume lowered, and her voice couldn't have sounded more distant than it did in her next few words. "I… fell in love with her."

"Ah… I see." The young Dante said, focusing his glance on Arex. "And? Was it going well?"

"It was, actually," Arex admitted softly. And for a moment, her hand actually moved, lifting to brush a stray strand of her hair behind her ear. "We spent a few years together, and she really did just move in with me after a little while. She was staying with me anyway, so it wasn't any different."

"Eh~ Living together like that so soon? I didn't think you were so daring," Dante tried to tease, and she appreciated it a little. But only a bit.

"I-I wasn't," Arex quickly retorted, but she kept her gaze down. "It was her idea, but… I didn't mind it. I'm pretty sure she knew how I felt about her long before I told her, because she was apparently feeling the same way about me when we first met. Before I even knew about my own feelings."

She almost wanted to laugh a little at how pathetic that sounded, but it was true.

"I… loved her, and even though she didn't have Aura, she always threw herself into danger for my sake," Arex continued, breaks starting to form in her breathless voice as she slowly started to lose grasp of its steadiness. "It… went too far one time, and I stepped in to protect her, but…"

That voice she was desperately hoping wouldn't break, fell apart. And she trailed off instead. "I couldn't control it… a-and..."

A sympathetic sigh came from Dante as he straightened himself out. "That… had to be tough… Again, I'm sorry if I sound mean or anything. I'm just… struggling to find the words is all. If there are any that is…"

Arex slowly drew her legs up onto the bed with her, wrapping her arms around them to pull her body tightly together. She hadn't talked about her past since it happened… Anoel was the only person she's ever really confided in.

But being separated like this from the world outside of here... it almost made talking about it easier.

"I… killed the girl I loved." Arex's voice fell quiet as she tucked the lower half of her face against her knees, encircling arms growing tighter as her eyes only grew more distant.

"I'd tell you it wasn't your fault and all, but I'm sure that wouldn't work for you… Though, I could easily say the same in my case given the circumstances. But, there is one irrefutable fact in it all. Know what it is?"

Arex's glistening eyes stayed down on the dusty sheets in front of her, a small shake of her head just barely tossing her hair in an attempt to answer him. She didn't need a mirror to know… just how black her bleak irises were changing to.

"I'd say 'us good people', but that term doesn't so much apply to me. In any sense, both of us were placed in crappy situations with no real option or method of escaping it. Hence why I wanted to say at first it's not really your fault, or mine, in spite of the madness being centered around us."

For Arex… she knew she was still at fault. No matter how she looked at it.

"But you have to ask yourself this question. With all that happened, all the fond memories you've gathered in that time… do you think that person would enjoy seeing you like this? Shutting yourself off from everyone because of the dreariness and despair in the world?"

Arex closed her eyes away as she tried to take a breath, but it only succeeded in shaking her to the core. "No… but it wouldn't surprise her, either…"

"Of course. I bet you anything if she could right now, she'd reach out, pinch your cheeks or something, and say 'pick yourself up and keep walking forward'."

Arex actually gave a forced, broken laugh at that, just to try to shake off the trembling of her body. "She'd probably just ask me why I haven't moved on yet, then wonder why I forgot that we're trapped in a dimension with a creepy shade tracking us."

"That's a typical Monday and Wednesday occurrence!" he said with a huff as he crossed his arms once more. "We can never forget the events surrounding us from the past. But we can't allow them to be shackles either that keep us from living. We press on ever forward, remembering them, and carrying their legacy with us in our hearts as we greet the morrow."

That was always easier said than done. Arex wished she was actually strong enough… to be able to pick herself back up like that.

"You're stronger than you make yourself out to be, little bird. Know how I know?" he asked.

Arex's face only hid further behind her legs as she shook her head again. She wasn't as strong as he thought she was.

"If you were as weak as you say you are, you never would have made it to today. You'd never have done the amazing things you do today, like baking and making all sorts cool tech! And… you probably wouldn't have trusted me enough, nor followed me in here knowing the risk."

"You're wrong…" Arex voiced, muffled by the legs she kept pulling closer against her chest.

"I'm not. Everyone gets down in the dumps now and then. Everything looks dreary and hopeless, and all those sorts of bad things," he said, kicking himself off the bed and approaching the young phoenix. "When it comes to this, I'm pretty much never wrong," the young Dante spoke, poking his finger gently at where her heart would've been through her leg.

Arex's mind was already shutting off, barely even registering the contact he made with her. Or the movements he made to get to her. "Can we get out of here… now…?"

"Let me ask you this then. If you are as weak as you claim to be, would you ever have been able to find any sense of comfort in your sister? Or even your partner, Kitsuki?"

The notion managed to crack Arex's eyes open, but it was confusion bringing that gaze out more than anything else. "How is that strength?"

"The fact you're able to connect with both of them to the extent that you do should be proof enough. If you were genuinely intent on hiding yourself away from the world because of the pain you feel… then you'd never have been able to forge the bonds you have with them so far."

It was true that Arex _wanted_ to move on… and she was doing that through them… but, even with all that, she still felt as weak as she did back then.

She didn't feel any stronger than she was before.

"You might not see the full picture now, but I guarantee that you will once we get out of here."

She… wished she could actually believe in that.

"Now then, if I have to be the Samwise Gamgee to your Frodo Baggins, I'll do it. I'll make sure you get out of here so that you can see again just how beautiful the world is in spite of the pain you've suffered. So… how about we both go home so we can see the people we care about most?" he asked, extending his hand to her.

Arex's gaze finally registered the small movements around her, quietly falling on the hand offered to her. That last part… sounded like a nice promise.

"Yeah…" she quietly spoke, one of her tightly gripped hands slipping lose to reach out for his. "I'd like that."

* * *

 **Hopefully that cleared some things up with Niro. Skyla took it upon herself to unravel all the little hints I'd left around and compile it into an understandable summation. She didn't outright say it, but hopefully you can fill in the blanks.**

 **Anoel and Lylac are acting like schoolgirls, still.**

 **Arex… well, you get the picture that's been painted.**

 **Anyway, I don't usually do this, but whenever you see Dante (or Dante-related persons), assume andy's written the actions of his character (since this is a collab between three authors, Hydra being the writer of Lylac and his other characters). So, a large majority of this chapter (andy's plot) was led by him as opposed to me. It took a nice weight off of writing the bulk of it for me, so I'm thankful to him for that. Though, I made sure it was all seen through Arex's eyes, and kept any character distinctions to her style.**

 **I'm usually the lead, but it's always nice when this takes the bulk away. That goes as thanks to both Hydra and andy for when it happens.**

 **One more person to thank. For this chapter, I happened to pull in Yakosh to help with the proofreading. I usually edit everything, sometimes with the help of andy and Hydra. But I agreed with a lot he pointed out, so kudos to him.**

 **For now,** _ **Favorite**_ **and** _ **Follow**_ **this new story.**

 **I look forward to seeing** _ **REVIEWS**_ **for this. You'll be introduced to a LOT of concepts of mine. Feel free to give me your thoughts.**

 **Cya XP**

 **PS. This omake is the start of a multi-omake series. It also contains one of my favorite Niro quotes of all time.**

* * *

 **Omake:** _by Xera Stark_

* * *

' _Are you in right now?'_

Arex closed her eyes at that. _No! No she wasn't in right now!_ She was very much _not in_ right now. She wanted to be out. As out as possible.

This was supposed to be a quick 'get her things' then 'get out' visit. She didn't want to stay here.

' _Yes or no little bird, I don't have time for idleness right now.'_

 _Damn it!_ Arex whimpered and whined as she plopped herself down onto the bed next to Kitsuki and flicked her scroll opened, sending out a quick response. _'Yes? What's wrong?'_

The two sat there… and _sat_ there… for what felt like the better part of a full minute as they waited for his dots to finish typing.

' _I don't have time to explain what I don't understand, and I can't really talk to anyone else about it right now. And since I'm certain you won't say nothing to no one about anything, you're my best bet right now. Wait, is Nosferatu in right now? And oh god… please tell me your sister's not around?'_

If Niro was here, Arex would _not_ feel so unsafe on school grounds right now. And Anoel? She was on a cute date with Lylac. Which Arex would _gladly_ sit back and watch with GHOST back at the apartment if she had the chance.

Those two were just _adorable_ together! She adored them. And they seemed to adore each other. Arex just wished the two would kiss already and actually mean it. Maybe even get married.

 _God_ she wanted them to get married so bad…

' _They're not here. Why?'_ the phoenix sent back.

' _I don't need him screwing with me at the moment and I definitely don't need Anoel seeing me like this. Given my current state, I'd be like an irresistible toy to a three year old child and a battery powered tool to a lonely thirty-year-old virgin, respectively. Look, yes or no, answer the question.'_

Arex didn't like where this was going. What kind of tool would a thirty-year-old virgin even use that was battery powered? And what the hell was a battery?

' _Yes, I'm free. But I can't just leave Kit here.'_ Arex responded, staring concernedly at the screen as Kit reached down and typed too. _'I wanna know what tool you're talking about.'_

He'll… probably know that Kit was the one to send that.

Probably.

Arex definitely wasn't curious too.

' _Fuck me- I mean, no, I'm not explaining that. That was a saying. I don't actually want you to- never mind. Swear her to secrecy, I don't care how. Cookies, pinky promise, blackmail, bondage, whatever.'_

Arex glanced up from the message and gazed over her shoulder. Kit's hands pressed gently against the phoenix's arm as she watched the kitsune read the message too.

Then she blushed, and that _already_ didn't bode well for what Arex was expecting from her subsequent sign.

" _Use a battery powered tool on me for an hour,"_ Kit signed with a growing blush, dipping her head as if what she said embarrassed her.

Arex didn't even know what that tool _was_. But she agreed anyway.

' _She won't say a word.'_ Arex sent back.

' _Alright. What did she- never mind. Not curious. Stay right where you are, be there in a sec.'_

Wait, he's coming here? _Shit._ Hide the boxes! _Hide the boxes!_

There was a knock on the door.

 _Fuck!_

Arex glanced up at how fast he got here, gazing over the pile of boxes she had stacked _right_ next to where he was going to have to come in from. He had to have been out there the whole time.

Just _knowing_ he'd be able to get her to agree to this. And agree to it she did. Just like- Arex glanced back at a furiously blushing Kit, and stared at her in confusion for a few silent seconds.

She needed to deal with the door.

Without much else to think, Arex dropped herself softly to her feet and made her way over, quickly pulling their dorm room door open.

She immediately squeaked and stepped back, a startled redness sweeping over her cheeks and face as she saw a pair of ice blue eyes staring back at her.

Long, messy white tresses fell over the girl's shoulders. Her black, button down shirt sat with a button or two undone and curved over a moderately exposed, and well endowed chest. It was wrapped in a white thin fabric coat with two long tails, the sleeves rolled up just above the elbows to show the coat's interior black lining.

Further down was a prominent pair of hips covered by a short and tight-hemmed black skirt that reached to the center of the thighs. Arex gulped as she found her eyes trailing down a pair of long, strong, lithe legs.

The kind you could stare at for hours and get wet just thinking abou-

 _Focus_. Arex got over her internal squeal with the usual strategy she employed. Externally squealing.

Quietly, of course.

"What?" Dante asked, a soft, feminine voice falling from her supple lips and elegantly framed face. "Haven't you seen a girl before?"

D-Dante was a girl… a _hot_ girl.

 _Fuck…_ Arex couldn't do this. Fuck this. She needed out.

Arex made a move to slam the door closed, but the window behind her sliding open caught her attention and brought her to whirl around.

Her blush spread to her neck and chest, reddening her ears straight to their tips as she saw someone in a black coat and dark pants step through, _soaked_.

Her first thought was Niro, but this was _another_ hot girl… Long, smooth black hair traveled down from beneath her sharp hat, fluttering damply in the breeze from outside. When the arrival turned to look at her, Arex froze up and just _stared_ back at the piercing green eyes staring innocently back at her.

"What?" Niro asked, her pitch so fittingly effeminate and high and… c-cute.

She wasn't prominently curvy, just lithe and accentuated. Like every little curve and contour of her body was brought out by the silhouette of her close-hugging coat and attire.

"N-Nothing!" Arex squeaked, trying hard not to look at her tightly fitted legs too. "Why are you soaked?"

"Fell into a river. Got turned into a girl. This is my life now," Niro spoke calmly, lightly, and in that cute, effeminate voice again. "Can I borrow your underwear?"

Arex couldn't do this…

She couldn't.

Another knock came from the door.

"Is Arex in there?" a new female voice spoke, an almost authoritative tone carrying it forward.

"She is. But she's going to help me first," Dante answered.

 _Oh god…_

Arex slowly turned around just as a girl with a beanie popped her head in, eyeing her with deep, violet eyes.

"I need your help," Ray said. Her gentle, female voice came off as _so not Ray_ but a submissive girl with long blonde hair asking for guidance.

That settled it.

Arex slowly curled up onto the floor and pretended they all weren't there.


	53. Taken

Rogue Huntsman

Taken

«»

They walked up to the mirror, catching something… odd in the reflection. It was them, but they were both… different.

Arex looked younger. Closer to thirteen now, actually, which was _really_ off putting. But considering where they were, she took it with more of a grain of salt than anything else. As for Dante, he was looking around the same age too.

Great. She was shrinking while he was getting bigger.

It was weird. She looked down at her hands and her arms as they got closer to the reflection, and they were as normal as they were supposed to.

So it was just an illusion.

Even though she knew that, it… brought something back in her memories that she really didn't want to deal with right now. So she turned her eyes to Dante's reflection instead of her own. Thirteen was a period of time she couldn't handle right now… not after talking about it earlier and letting it resurface.

Dante's reflection looked different to his usual carefree face. His eyes were… harder, almost soulless. And his garb was entirely black, draped leanly in a tattered robe where all you could see was his silhouette and covering hood.

"Not so bad, little bird. You sure grew up nicely. Definitely taller. I may be slightly jealous."

Right… he could see her reflection too.

Her reflection actually looked a little happy, now that she noticed her young face in the mirror.

"I was pretty short back then," Arex replied, not looking to refute what he said. She didn't exactly grow much, though… 5'5 wasn't exactly tall. "Looks like you grew out of wearing robes."

"Meh, I kinda liked it. Loose, comfortable, easy to fight in. I just got more accustomed to the Eihei Nine uniform I got a few years later. Think of Inuba's outfit, but stylized for guys." He shrugged.

She guessed that was pretty fair. "My clothes are kind of built for movement too, but it leans mostly toward comfort. I… don't really try too hard for style points."

"You know, I could ask Inuba's mother to make you an outfit in your style. And you know, make it easier for you to pop your wings in and out."

"It's not really that much of a hassle as it is," Arex offered back, her gaze casting over her shoulder for a moment as she let the tip of her wing thread through the slit in the back of her sweater. She sewed those herself to be as unnoticeable as possible.

"Yeah, but you can't always wear that sweater of yours. People might think you're celebrating Christmas everyday. And don't you get sweaty wearing that all the time? Especially in the summer?" he asked, eyeing the article too.

"It's a light sweater, and it's pretty thin and airy so I don't get too uncomfortable in it," Arex said, drawing her wing back in. "Heat's never really been a big issue for me. In fact, I kind of get cold easily… so it's just nice to have a sweater handy."

The colors on the other hand were just black and green. On top of that, it was more of an olive green, too. So, she didn't know where he was getting Christmas from.

"Alright then. But don't blame me if you get a box of clothes out of the blue outside your door one day," he said, then focused his attention back on the mirror. "More importantly… Is there a meaning to showing us this…?"

"I'd know exactly who to blame then…" Arex muttered in a sigh. She was kind of used to people throwing things at her, by now.

But his question still brought out some hint of curiosity in her. That, and worry.

"Considering it can look into our pasts, I really don't like whatever the meaning might be," she replied, stopping a few feet away from the mirror. She didn't want to get any closer to it than she had to.

"I'm not so sure this is 'looking into the past', otherwise there'd be a whole slew of memories popping up on the mirror right about now. Rather… it's just reflecting a past version of ourselves… Hey, what age are you about in your reflection? Twelve? Eleven?"

If it knew exactly what they looked like in the past, and what they wore, Arex really didn't want to know what else it could resurface right alongside that. "Thirteen."

"Huh…" he started with a quizzical glance. "That's about this age for me too… Five year old me which I know nothing about until past the age of seven, thirteen year old me in this reflection…" He shivered audibly for a brief moment, as if he came to a startling realization.

"This one's just me at around the time of my bakery first opening, and…" she trailed off, but he knew that part of her story already as it was. That was around the time when the one she was talking about was still alive.

"I figured as much for myself, but… The more I think about it… the more I'm starting to feel this wasn't meant for you or anyone else…"

"Good," Arex murmured to herself. She didn't want it to be.

"As in this was meant specifically _for_ me," the small Dante replied glancing back at the phoenix.

"Kind of why I _really_ don't like this place," Arex said, glancing down at the young Dante for a moment before letting her gaze wander the drearily silent room. "Makes it feel even more like you were targeted now."

"But by who? There's no chance that… um… someone followed Inuba and me here, so nothing from the old days. So then… We're either dealing with a really douchey prankster that has a firm grasp of spatial distortions… Or a stalker with the same set of skills I just mentioned. Personally, I'm inclined to believe option B."

It was only making Arex want to leave this place all the more… "Either way, the sooner we get out of here, the better."

"I know I know, but…" He let out a frustrated sigh while rubbing the back of his head. "Alright… Considering you're… unlikely bendable in opposite directions in the event of spatial anomaly traps, I'll take one for the team and go through one of the doors."

The girl just hesitantly nodded to that. She was bendable, but not… unbreakable, if there was some kind of trap set. Still, if it was safe, she didn't want to wait too long to follow after him.

Him going first was one thing, but her being left alone in a separate room was a whole other thing all together.

"Don't worry. I'll speed walk for you," Dante said, giving her a thumbs up before turning around and heading to one of the doors.

Arex just… followed right behind him, but kept what little comfortable distance she could to be able to react in case something went wrong.

She watched as Dante slowly opened the door, coming to a brief stop as he peeked inside. He tossed a quick look left and right, then entered and closed the door behind himself.

Just in case something _did_ happen.

Silence fell back over the room as the click of the door sounded, and Arex was left shuffling in her spot as the moments ticked by. Her eyes roamed around the room tensely in the two seconds of quietness that did settle, but a soft click from the other side of the room made her jump.

The small form of Dante appeared as a door was tugged open at the opposite wall. It was the door toward the other side of the short hallway that opened, with Dante stepping out a second after.

"Woah… That was some Scooby-Doo nonsense right there…"

"Y-Yeah…" she grabbed her arm lightly as she glanced to the door still in front of her. This was all really coming together now as a maze, especially with what they ran through earlier. And what was worse, it was relying on magic.

Likely a system that would've been hard to cheat their way out of.

"I went through that door and walked straight. No twists or turns or anything. Great… A repeating corridor…" Another sigh of annoyance escaped his mouth. "Alright. One of these four doors will get us out of this spot, or at the very least the next area. Problem is… which freaking door is it?!"

He sounded a bit… angry.

"What makes you think there's even a way out of this portion?" Arex asked lightly, counting the doors now in her head. Something she'd done several times already, but considering how warped this place was, she wanted to do it again. "This place is designed to trap us… so why make a way out?"

"It's the set up. Spatial creations like this one specifically have to follow a gimmick rule. That rule being there must always be a fair and actual way out," Dante explained.

"That's… a weird rule to be bound to. What's stopping someone from breaking that?" Arex asked.

"It's kind of like an unspoken, built in rule for Spatial Magic users when creating a space of this magnitude. If this was just a normal trapping space, the closed off space would be visible on the outside and potentially breakable from both sides. Though, it's best you try breaking it from inside. If you have the power to break it that is."

"Still, can't someone break that rule if they wanted to? What's stopping them if they're powerful enough?" Arex continued, quietly making her way over to Dante now.

"Not unless you were the actual, genuine God, no. That's the only other being I know of that can dispel any magic or get rid of the rules entirely," Dante answered. "Sadly, God isn't here. They're busy."

"Of course they are…" Arex muttered, coming to a stop again near Dante. She kept finding herself standing near him whenever she could. Who could blame her, though, in a place like this? "So… we should just start testing doors? See if one of them leads out?"

"Can't do it at random I'm afraid," Dante explained, shaking his head. "I'm under the inclination to believe the 'correct' door will switch each time we get it wrong. And if one of us just happens to get the lucky door, the other person's screwed. And I really don't feel like leaving you behind, and then struggling to try and find you again."

"If that's the case, then can't we just continuously use one door together until we come out into a different place? If the doors _are_ switching, it'd eventually make that one the correct door," Arex offered, bringing her eyes to the door Dante just stepped through. It made sense to her, at least. "And if not, then that might mean the doors aren't switching on us at all."

He let out another sigh. "Alright, pay attention little bird, since this is your first day, presumably, working with real magic. Stuff like this? There's no simple or easy method of doing things. Not as directly as you're thinking anyway. We just… need to figure out the gimmick with these doors… But what aren't we seeing?" Dante pondered as he walked back to the mirror, staring intently at it.

Working out a gimmick that she had no knowledge of? Which could honestly be anything? Arex at least wanted to bring a little logic into this… like solving an algorithm or something… but if her input was moot, then all she really could do was wait.

Dante was the only person out of the two of them who's actually done this before, anyway.

"You're smart, right?" Dante asked over his short shoulder. "So think of this as a complex puzzle. A game of sorts. These sorts of things can stick out in the least expected ways. So come on, use those mood ring eyes of yours and scan the room through this mirror."

" _Through_ the mirror?" Arex asked, slowly tracking her eyes back to Dante to see him starting to walk back toward the wall with the reflection.

And didn't he say her logic didn't work here?

She slowly followed, coming to a stop beside him as they peered into the glass.

There were lights above each door, above the door frames. Faint, but still glowing. Like little torches.

One of them was out.

"I don't like this…" Arex murmured again, glancing away from the mirror to the door that was missing its light. Outside of the reflection itself, they all looked the same. "Are we _really_ going to test the only door without a light?" she asked, starting to walk toward it.

"Wait, what? Repeat that again please," he asked, quickly facing her.

Arex glanced back and stopped, just pointing to the mirror. "The doors. Each frame has a faint glow coming from the top of them. Only one of them doesn't."

Couldn't he see that?

"No way… Arex, I think you just-"

His voice went silent as his eyes went wide, grabbing hold of Arex's hand and dragging her out of the way of the mirror, where a shadowy hand had crashed through the glass and attempted to grab her. It's arm wriggled about wildly as the two took cover behind one of the large beds.

"Great, a mirror entity too. I freaking hate ghosts! And clowns!" he silently exclaimed, carefully peeking over the bed frame.

Arex eventually mustered enough courage to take a peek as well, watching the flailing, black hand stop a moment before returning slowly back into the mirror's depths. The reflection showed the specter from earlier walking across the room, but she wasn't visible in the room itself outside the reflection.

And when the black, whispy specter phased through the center hallway door, it shook slightly, but the door on Arex and Dante's side didn't budge an inch.

Dante took a breath of relief, then turned to Arex. "Talk about a jumpscare, huh?"

Arex was shaking a little, but she was able to nod at that. "Y-Yeah…" She hated those. "W-We should probably keep away from the mirror, from now on," she muttered.

"Yeah… Now that we know what to look for in the reflection, we don't need to get close to the mirror. So it was… that door, right?" he asked, pointing to one of the doors.

The one Arex first picked out from the reflection earlier for its missing light.

All she did was nod again and give a light hum of affirmation. "Yeah, that was the one."

"Alright, stick close."

They both took another quick peek over the bed frames and moved slowly to the door, opening and walking through it to find themselves walking down a long corridor. A pair of double doors sat at the end.

When they passed through, the room they found themselves in was similar to the last, but was smaller. The beds this time were pushed together in a disorganized fashion with long standing curtains reaching up from the sides.

A loud crunching sound filled the room, both the phoenix and small child glancing at the mirror to see the shadowy specter beginning to pass through until it found its feet touching the ground. Its head, with its long flowing strands of floating hair twitched about sporadically in intervals now and then.

It began to circle the enclosed, claustrophobic room.

Dante and Arex had already ducked down when the specter passed through the mirror, and lowered into low crouches. They kept their footfalls as silent as possible as they moved away from the phantom patrolling for them.

Arex noticed Dante curse silently to himself, and the specter suddenly surged forward. Both of their eyes went wide with fear, expecting the phantom to just round the corner they were around. But it came to a sudden stop, snapping its head as it floated deathly still.

It slowly turned around and snapped again… before patrolling in the opposite direction. Its distorted, feminine voice began to hum, an eerie lullaby echoing enchantingly through the room as it moved. Arex was shaking, barely keeping her balance let alone her breath as she and Dante did their best to remain calm. The two silently went in the opposite direction of the specter's path.

The curtains made moving around it simpler, but it also made it much more difficult to see the mirror's reflection to find their clue to the next door. The sporadic, twitchy surges of movement were what spooked the two the most, especially Arex. But its walking pattern was strangely distinguishable and repeating, the two finding a window in it to get to the mirror.

A moment was all they needed, but that was all they had.

They shifted opposite of the phantom's patrol path as soon as they could, and with their few moments of respite, Dante made his message to Arex clearly and silently.

" _The door is right around that loop there,"_ he signed out with his hands and fingers. _"We need to make a run for it. After we distract it. And thankfully, the door to the corridor we came from is still open. Can you still use your Affinity?"_

Arex looked to her hand, a few brief and silent flickers of flame forming around her fingers. She was hesitant, but she gave Dante a silent nod.

" _Good. Fireball one down the corridor, and we'll move around whichever direction it decides to go around. When it gets just about to the end of the corridor, we book it. Ready?"_

Another silent but quick nod came from the girl who simply wanted to leave already, but a pensive grimace and a frown made its way to her face at the word fireball.

" _Since you're still not all too comfortable with Affinity, we'll use this,"_ he signed out again, quickly pausing so they could move again to keep out of sight.

He lifted up… a shoe.

" _Is that yours?"_ Arex signed quickly, her flames still flickering around her fingertips in a light blur.

" _Indeed. Goodbye shoe I bought today from the five-hundred lien store downtown. Your sacrifice will not be in vain."_

He made peace with his shoe, giving it a final nod of respect as he held it out for Arex.

Arex… waited for him to finish before reaching out, lightly touching the two sides of it with her hands before igniting the fabric in a burning haze.

She… always hated watching fires spread from her touch…

" _Hasta la vista, shoe."_

With a forceful toss, his flaming shoe streaked with blinding speed into a dual pack of crates they passed by when they ran through the long corridor. The impact shattered the stacked wood in a blaze, igniting the scattered pieces in a vibrant glow.

The specter's body jerked towards the direction of the noise and light, and with it's spastic, twitchy movements, it surged forward with terrifying speed. Only, it wasn't going around the beds like it did in its patrol.

It was phasing through them.

The small Dante quickly spun himself up and over Arex's legs, barely avoiding the specter's body as it went down the path. Without another word, he grabbed Arex's startled hand and yanked her into a quickened, crouching walk. As soon as they could, they sprinted for the correct door.

A few moments later, they burst through another set of double doors, finding themselves back inside the diner.

"Go go go go go!" Dante yelled as he and Arex leapt over the counter and made for the front doors.

Arex was the first to open them, finding a passage of light filling the space inside the frame. She moved to sprint, but paused when she realized Dante wasn't running alongside her.

When she turned around, she saw him standing still at the entrance, looking back from where they came to see the specter had stood in the doorway of the corridor they escaped. Both it and Dante locked eyes for a few moments until it reached out for him. But it seemed different from the entire time it tried catching the two of them.

It seemed… desperate in trying to reach out for him. But the small Dante only looked off to the side before he ran to the passage of light to join Arex. Then they bolted through.

* * *

Skyla sat with the faunus girl placed snugly in her lap. The small girl's eyes were just peering over the table, barely even tall enough to see, and she had her little hands clasped together on top of her own legs.

The brunette found it absolutely adorable, and she loved the way the young fox faunus just _looked_ curious. She didn't say much, didn't so much as make a noise since they picked her up, but she just had the _cutest_ look in her eyes when she looked around.

Like everything was intriguing to her.

Maybe they were just interesting individuals? Skyla wouldn't blame her if she thought that. A dark knight with bright, luminescent lime green eyes, and a simple girl with brown hair and purple eyes. Each with pasts shrouded in mystery.

Skyla thought it was poetic, but something told her Niro thought otherwise, with the way he was giving the two girls a cold look.

"Hey, if you wanted her to sit on _your_ lap, you should've said something," Skyla spoke up, pushing her whiskey forward just a bit to keep it out of reach of the young four-year-old. She hadn't reached for it, but it was just a precaution.

"What makes you think I wanted that?" he asked, voice _oh so desolate_ and as chilled as an ice-ridden mountain. Skyla was more inclined to compare him to a bowl of mystery ice cream, though.

You just never knew what you were getting. All you knew for sure was that it was going to be cold.

Skyla just laughed a little and lifted her chin, feeling a set of small hands start to play with the ends of her white ombre scarf. "Oh, don't play coy with me, Niro. You want this munchkin all to yourself, don't you?"

"Not really…" Niro's eyes narrowed as Skyla bounced her little lap-fox up and down a few times. The girl's ears fluttered and bounced with her weight, which was just another thing to add to the list of 'cutest things ever'.

Seriously, how could Niro _not_ want this?

"Well it's too late anyway," Skyla said with a huff, draping her arms down to smother that cute child in an affectionate, possessive hug. "Because this one's all mine and you can never have her."

"Perfect. Works for the both of us," the cowboy deadpanned, turning an indifferent, unreadable gaze off to the side. His eyes suddenly narrowed, and Skyla watched his fingers slowly clench again.

But she didn't peg it as out of the ordinary. He'd been doing it a lot since they sat down… At least, until she watched him suddenly shatter his glass.

It wasn't like all the times he'd cracked it from one of her snide remarks or teases. Shards of glass scattered into a pool of whiskey as he crushed the fragments into his skin, Skyla quickly covering the four-year-old's eyes when blood started to spill.

"Are you… alright?" Skyla asked slowly, but she felt a short snap of wind hit her when Niro suddenly stood up faster than she could see, staring intently at one of the walls of the establishment. The only one that faced the city of Vale.

The brunette opened her mouth to say something else, but Niro vanished in that same moment. The door leading into the place slamming closed during the same gust of wind that just blew through the bar.

"Huh…" Skyla murmured to herself, watching as the door's vibrations quieted down.

Niro was in a hurry. He looked… angry, too. Like someone killed his dog or something. But it wasn't just that. Skyla caught sight of a glimmer of alarm and worry passing over his face just before he vanished, leaving her behind without a word.

Maybe a word would've taken too long to utter, she guessed.

"Whelp," the girl quipped, looking down to the young faunus staring worriedly at the door. "Don't worry, I just think something important came up for him. How about we get you back to your family?"

Skyla's voice fell sweetly into the open air as she stood from the booth, lifting the girl up to cradle in her arms for a few seconds before raising her to sit on her shoulders.

"L-Leaving too?" a soft, feminine voice spoke out.

Her waitress strolled over as Skyla sought it out, a warm smile crossing the brunette's face at the way the girl looked at her. It was a worried look, but nothing like the foreboding one Niro held for that frame of a fractional second earlier.

This one was so much more innocent. The waitress thought she'd probably never see Skyla again, if the brunette left. Just a face passing through.

It… was a small wakeup call. Skyla had spent a little too long here, and now she was going to let the girl down by never having a reason to return.

 _Is it… really such a bad thing to forget about me?_

"I might come back, who knows," Skyla said, offering the girl the warmest smile she could, but one that held false promises. "Maybe you can see me in the city some time? I go to a school called Beacon there, if you're ever around."

Skyla made sure to smile, and keep smiling, even as she watched the girl's own slowly fall.

"Oh, right! Here," Skyla quickly added, taking one of her hands off her faunus' dangling ankles to reach into her jacket pocket.

"N-No, no, it's fine. D-Drinks were on the house," her waitress said, one of her hands lightly touching Skyla's fishing arm to stop it.

She'd stopped her right as she found her wallet. "Are you sure? I don't mind paying for the both of us," Skyla assured, gesturing back to the booth she shared with Niro.

"Really, it's all on the house…" The waitress' voice was quiet, buckling in on itself like the best day of her life was beginning to sour.

Maybe it was.

"As long as you're sure," Skyla said, giving the girl a genuinely apprehensive look. It really did hurt… whenever Skyla knew she took it too far sometimes. "I'll head out then. And don't worry," the brunette promised, reaching out to rest her hand on the waitress' shoulder.

The faunus sitting on Skyla reached a hand out as well, placing small fingers on the waitress' head for additional support.

"You're cute, adorable, stutter at _all_ the right times," Skyla listed off, teasing a pleasant blush and one last smile out of the girl's face. "You'll find someone, you just-" _have to forget about me_ "-need to keep looking."

"Y-Yeah…" Skyla watched her dip her chin in a nod, eyes peering up at the brunette. _Oh, don't look at me like that._ "Y-You're very pretty. I just wanted to say that… before you left," she murmured.

Skyla smiled sweetly at that, moving her hand over to gently lift the girl's chin back up. The faunus atop Skyla's shoulders took that moment to pet the waitress softly too.

"Don't stop being cute," Skyla said in return to the compliment, gently slipping her fingers away from beneath the waitress' raised chin.

With that said, Skyla made her way to the door and propped it open, letting a certain white lion paw his way out into the dirt street before waving to the girl watching her go. Then she left.

"So, you taking off too?" Skyla asked, walking over to match pace with the lion. A distracted hand drifted from her side to rest in his mane, clinging to it gently as they moved.

His head dipped for a few seconds, before giving an affirmative sounding growl. It was disheartening to hear, but she knew it was coming.

"Okay. Take care of yourself, kitty," the brunette spoke softly, coming to a stop when she realized they'd wandered to the edge of the nearby forest.

Her eyes watched him drop the frozen Death crystal he carried in his maw, turning his head back for a few long moments before she noticed a silent shimmer in his eyes.

The gentle caress of frost touched her ear just before he picked his crystal up and left, disappearing into the shade of the trees ahead of them. White fur vanishing into the leaves.

Skyla smiled to herself as she reached a slow hand up, touching lightly at the new weight she felt settled over her ear. Something was tucked in her brown hair there.

Her fingers delicately plucked a chilled, almost feathery piece of ice out of her hair to look at it. And she smiled even more when she saw the detailed, intricate ice rose he'd left for her.

"How sweet…" she muttered, smiling again. Her eyes turned up to meet a pair of hazel orbs looking down at her, and she saw a matching, smaller rose sitting over the four-year-old faunus' ear. "Hold onto that, yeah? It's a gift."

Skyla grazed her thumb over the petals of her own rose as she started moving, heading down the path that took her out of town. The ice wasn't melting from her touch, so she knew she could hold onto it… for a while, at least.

Before she knew it, she'd dropped off the cute little faunus girl at her mother's. But not without a long, heartwarming hug before leaving the girl to her family.

 _Forget me too, cutie._ It was a mental promise. A promise Skyla hoped the young girl understood amidst their hug, before she had to go.

To a kid so young, it would be easier to forget a nameless girl who saved you. But… Skyla sighed to herself, taking a turn down to the market district now that she was back in Vale. She's been wrong before, when it came to kids.

Gathering her usual groceries, Skyla made her last purchase at a stand amidst the crowd. The lady was sweet. She sold fresh fruits and vegetables, a farmer. Skyla made sure to grab a bundle, even if she wasn't going to eat it.

"Before you go, honey," her older voice spoke, catching Skyla's attention as she stopped herself from walking off. "Be careful on your way home. A strange man's been hanging around in that alley just across from here. I've been warning everyone I can to avoid it, just to be safe."

"Oh?" Skyla glanced over her shoulder, turning slightly on her heel to look into the shadows of the adjacent buildings. "That one?"

"Yes. Be sure to avoid it, will you?" the sweet lady asked.

The brunette glanced down into her bag for a few moments, watching the light glint off the ice rose she left atop her collection of food. Maybe _one_ more adventure, today.

"I'll take care of him," Skyla promised, glancing back over her shoulder to give the nice woman a sweet smile of her own. "Promise."

The farmer opened her mouth in uncertainty and shock, but Skyla flashed her a wave and walked off before she could say anything.

She entered the alleyway a few moments later.

It was empty, at least from this angle. Which meant the weird guy had to have been hiding in one of the crevices along the way, somewhere in the middle. These places always made it easy for muggings, huh…?

Long, narrow corridor, plenty of places to hide. Skyla quietly started making her way through the juncture of the buildings, deep in thought.

If you had a gun, this place was definitely the place to be. Dumpsters here and there, receded backdoors leading into the buildings that worked as excellent cubby holes to disappear into. It was dark, so the senses were trying harder to take notice of things.

And boy was getting away going to be hard if you didn't know how to dodge in a straight line.

"Nice place for a walk there, missy," a chill voice sounded from behind her, and Skyla finally looked down from her thoughts.

She was about halfway through the alley, maybe a little more than that. He took his sweet time, didn't he?

Skyla calmly turned and found a gun leveled at her chest, the shady man slowly working his way around to her front before stopping just in her way. A seemingly confident, sure smile rested on his face, if also a little evil.

It was always weird how smiles could look good or evil, and how you could actually tell at a glance which one it was. Maybe it was in the eyes. Or the cheeks? Maybe the cheekbones?

"Empty your pockets and place your scroll on the ground, and you won't find a bullet in your head," he ordered, punctuating his sentence with an audible click back of his pistol's firing hammer.

Huh, it looked like he just grabbed that thing from some default gun store. It wasn't custom made or detailed, or anything really. Just a plain, matt black colt m1911.

She wondered if he'd ever pulled the trigger yet…

"Do you want my groceries too? They're fresh," Skyla voice back, holding up her grocery bag for him to see. She'd just bought them today, so she saw them as pretty valuable.

"What?" he looked confused and shocked, before he gestured his gun forward in impatience. "No. Just your valuables."

Really, he didn't want her groceries? She'd totally rob someone of their groceries if she was evil… "I can give you my shoes too," she offered instead. "If you're into that."

"God, no! Will you hurry up!" He was getting more impatient now.

Skyla heard quiet footsteps coming from behind her, all the way back at the entrance to the alleyway. She needed to hurry this up… she didn't want anyone else getting caught up in this.

Maybe antagonizing him might be fun… Oh, she had the perfect game for him.

"I don't wanna," she stated blatantly like a child. "You might as well just shoot me."

 _Do it, you wimp._

"Listen lady," he took a startled step back, prompting Skyla to follow after him with her own step, "this gun isn't a joke. I will-"

"Shoot me," Skyla restated. Harder this time. "Do it. You won't."

 _Coward!_

"Damn it woman! I ain't kidding here-!" he yelled, starting to shake now.

"Then shoot me! Pull that trigger with your twitchy finger! Do it!" Skyla yelled back, taking another step forward this time.

He stumbled back and panicked, squeezing the trigger as he did.

 _There you go! Good boy._

Skyla calmly tipped her head out of the way of the shot, where the gun had been raised in his hasty mind. As soon as the bullet was out of her hair, the brunette shot her hand forward and jammed his finger back with a twist of his gun, tearing it out of his grasp in the same motion. There may or may not have been a crack of bone somewhere in there too.

She quickly put a little pressure forward on his extended arm to tip him, you know, to set him up nicely right before driving her knee into his gut.

He hit the ground hard.

"Wow, you let a girl peer pressure you into shooting her," Skyla deadpanned, stepping forward to stand over him. His eyes shot open amidst his pain and stared up at her, the girl calmly moving one of her feet to press the sole of her boot down into his neck. "Here. If you're gonna shoot someone without hesitation, it looks a lot like this."

She showed him his gun for a split second before snapping it down at him, taking aim the instant the barrel leveled with his head.

And she watched his eyes squeeze shut as a flurry of concussive gunshots blew through the alleyway. She squeezed that trigger until there wasn't a single bullet left, tracing the shape of his head into the stone and asphalt he lied on.

She left a couple clean cuts and grazes along his face for good measure, where the bullets _really_ got close to him.

"Listen, if you don't have the nerve to pull the trigger on _half_ of the population in this city, you're as good as dead," Skyla spoke firmly, turning the gun's handle down to let its empty clip slide out and strike the bridge of his nose. Then she dropped his gun on his face right after. "That half will kill you before you do."

Skyla finally stepped off his neck, leaning down to give his shaking head a nice little pat before stepping away.

Right. Now, how come those steps never got closer?

The brunette turned on her heel and peered behind her, amethyst eyes immediately catching the freeze-frame form of a girl staring at her from the corner of a receded wall.

 _What? Never seen a mugging before?_

"Didn't wanna step in, huh?" Skyla asked slowly, watching the way the girl's stunned face suddenly snapped to attention from where she peered from.

Her observer shuffled awkwardly before realizing she'd been gawking a little longer than she meant to, amusedly holding her hands up in surrender as she stepped out. Skyla was able to see her fully once she did.

Oh, hey, wait a minute. The brunette traced her eyes over the random girl's figure again and realized she recognized her.

The girl stood just an inch shorter than herself, and Skyla was 5'5 for that matter. She had this… petite but developed look going for her, beautiful in that slender way but also startlingly cute.

She wore a white blouse, fitted with a black dress vest with the two tails coming down to the backs of her knees. It paired nicely with the black pleated skirt she was sporting, its trim and interior a contrasting pure white. _That_ particular article reached as short as the girl's mid thighs.

Skyla liked skirts, but she always prefered just wearing shorts herself. That was her biggest complaint with Beacon's school uniform. Still, that short skirt looked good on this girl.

Black knee high boots sat slimly just beneath the hem of it, white zippers running down the outsides of their lengths as Skyla traced her eyes over the girl's lithe legs.

Skyla found it cute how much contrast the girl tried to wear, because the dark colors of the details of her clothing really made her white hair shine. A shoulder-length half-ponytail hung just behind her neck, leaving her side bangs to dangle down to her shoulders too.

It was a nice look on her.

Maybe the brunette shouldn't have taken advantage of her staring awkwardly back like that… She managed to check her out without her even realizing it. Though, Skyla didn't feel so bad about it when she watched where the girl's blue eyes went.

They were checking each other out, so she guessed that made it fair.

Skyla internally shrugged. She liked teasing girls, sure, but this one actually had a lot of cuteness _and_ developed maturity to her. And she's seen her around Beacon, too.

The last time she remembered catching sight of the girl was when she flicked an arrogant dragon faunus on the forehead to win a battle of strength. Knocked her straight onto her butt.

It really is a small world, huh?

Her name wasn't too hard to remember either. It was short and sweet.

Ciel.

A clambering of rushed footsteps took off from Skyla's other side, but she ignored them. Probably just that guy running off.

"Don't worry, I'm not bothered," Skyla eventually said, noticing Ciel was having trouble coming up with something to say. Probably a reason why she didn't step in. Come to think of it, Skyla was pretty sure Ciel was a better fighter than her anyway. "Would've probably done the same if you were in my position."

Skyla gave that offer out as she switched her grocery bag to her other hand, then reached into her jacket pocket for her scroll. She needed to know the time.

"It's Ciel, right?" the brunette asked, flicking her scroll open distractedly to take a note of how late it was. That bookstore should still be open… but it closed in the next hour.

"Um… yeah, that's my name. Yup… Hehehe…" Ciel said, voice light and humorous. It sounded young in pitch, which made sense, given the girl looked maybe a year younger than Skyla was.

Other than that, she just kind of stood there… awkwardly. _Hey, aren't you supposed to be all confident and guns blazing and stuff?_

"Well, I'll see you around school then," Skyla responded, tossing another look Ciel's way before turning on her heel. She gave the white-haired girl a wave over her shoulder as she started heading out.

"Woah woah woah hey! Uh… God!" Ciel suddenly said, calling after Skyla's retreating form.

Skyla cast a glance over her shoulder, an amused look in her eyes. She knew the girl just exclaimed that, but it really sounded like she was calling her God.

"Not even close. My name's Skyla," the brunette corrected. Why did it look like Ciel was still freaking out?

"I was uh… gonna do something… Snap my fingers and stuff but uh… well… I saw that you pretty much had it…" she eventually reasoned.

Oh, so she really was going to step in to help.

"He didn't want the salmon I bought earlier," Skyla replied simply, turning on her heel now to face the girl. She gestured her bag up just to add to what she said, peering into it. "I had to get serious."

It was decently expensive salmon. And fresh, too. "Stupid prices. There weren't even any good sales today…" the brunette mumbled to herself.

"So… uh, you cook? Food I mean, not… well, you know," Ciel asked.

Was her confidence at school just a mask or something? Skyla stared at the stammering girl for a few long moments, wondering why she was being cute all of a sudden.

"Yeah… Anyway, I was gonna pick up a quick book series to read on my way back, since I'll be passing the local library on the way." Skyla closed her bag and made a short gesture over her shoulder. The store… kinda closes soon.

"W-What book series?" Ciel stuttered again.

Skyla hummed to herself as she looked back at her. "They're by Terry Pratchett," she explained. "There's this character called Rincewind that I like reading about right now who befriended a carnivorous luggage box."

"Woah, you read the Rincewind series? For real?"

Did she really read it too?

"I do. After I finished the Tolkien stuff, I wanted a bit of a change of pace," Skyla continued, quirking a slight brow at the girl. "Are you just saying that, by the way? Or do you actually know the series I was talking about?"

"No no no, I read it," Ciel quickly replied. "Rincewind's escape from Death is actually pretty entertaining. Kinda makes you wonder if he's blessed or something. Or cursed."

"I found out he's cursed, actually. The only reason why he's so good at cheating Death is because he's reallygood at running from things." _She really does read it!_ Skyla smiled at that. "And good to know you actually read it too. I would've thought you were just hitting on me or something."

Skyla glanced behind her again, catching the fading rays of light just outside the alleyway. It only reminded her what time it was.

"It's getting late, and I don't want this fish to spoil, so I do need to go," the brunette said, lifting her grocery bag up again.

"Oh, hey! Why don't I go with you?" Ciel asked. "I've got some things I wanted to get too. Plus, you know, we'd less likely get bothered by some weird guys if we stick together, right?"

"Hm?" Wouldn't two girls _attract_ weird guys?

Unless she was talking about that mugger still?

"Oh, I only took this alley because the market stall lady I was talking with mentioned there was a strange man loitering in it, and not to go this way," Skyla casually explained. That was basically the whole story, yeah.

"Huh… Good of her to tell you at least, right?" Ciel said with a shrug.

"Yeah. She was super nice to me, so I'm glad she warns people about that kind of stuff," Skyla responded, shrugging in return before turning again and heading for the end of the alley.

Though, she had to admit… she was curious why Ciel wasn't acting like her usual self.

Maybe her tagging along wouldn't be all that bad.

So Skyla stopped, one more time, to give the girl a chance to tag along. "Coming?"

One glance back only brought a smile to Skyla's face, because Ciel suddenly grinned excitedly and nodded.

"Sure thing!"

* * *

The two crashed through one last set of familiar double doors and onto a dusty floor. Arex was the first to get to her feet, rubbing her head as she opened her eyes and looked around.

They were back in the diner. The real diner, not the one shrouded in black. And the first thing she saw was the glow of light glinting through the boards of the surrounding windows.

It wasn't as bright as a sun's rays would be, but there was still light. And from the looks of it, it must've been coming from street lights outside.

"It's night…" Those were the first words Arex muttered before looking back at Dante, expecting him to still be small. But she quickly took a step back as he pushed himself to his feet.

Oh… he was normal now, too. And taller than her, again.

"Sweet! I'm me again! Tall me! Whoo!" he cheered, throwing his hands up.

"Great…" Arex voiced quietly, leaning to peer behind him at the door they just got out of.

All it gave off was the image of a dark storeroom. Nothing ominous about it anymore.

"Why do you make it sound like that's a bad thing…?"

"Because now I have to look up at you again when I want to see your face," Arex replied, grabbing her arm as she lifted herself up onto the balls of her feet in one small bounce. The small attempt at extra height did nothing to reduce that gap. She was 5'5. He was easily 5'11. "Well, we're finally out," the girl said with a sigh.

"That we are…" Dante replied, dusting himself off. "So, how was your first day at magic camp?" he asked. His voice held a tone that made him almost sound like a parent questioning their child.

Arex's eyes fell on him again for a long few moments, staring incredulously before turning and heading for the door. "It sucked."

"Ah come on, it wasn't that bad. Besides, it's not everyday you run into an extra-dimensional being possibly trying to pillage your soul. Or you know, other things, like playing Organ Chess."

Arex got to the door and tested it, cracking it open with a sigh of relief before pushing it the rest of the way out. She stopped when she felt a tap on her shoulder.

"Hey, um…" Dante said. "I am… really sorry for being a pushy little hellion. I honestly didn't have all too much self-control really…"

If this was about how they opened up to each other about their pasts, then…

The girl's head dipped as she took a breath, peering back at him with a partial side glance. "I'm used to it, so don't worry about it."

He shook his head, from what she could tell without looking at him. "No, but I am really, really sorry about it. Childish curiosity just… drove me to want to know more about you. I mean, you're a pretty interesting person once someone manages to get to know you a little bit more that is."

'Interesting'. Arex internally grimaced. She never liked it when people took an interest in her past. Those years were a period of her life she knew she'd never get over… so why did it keep coming back?

"Like I said, just don't worry about it… or bring it up," she replied, slowly turning her gaze away again to look outside at the empty street.

"Trust me. I'm saying nothing to no one about anything. Not even me," he offered in return. "But we should hang out more, and see what crazy stuff we can make at the forge. And you know… maybe the occasional field trip with magic stuff involved," he said, eagerly raising up his hand. "High five friendo!"

She immediately left him hanging by finally stepping out of the diner, holding the door for him. "I'm _never_ going on another field trip like this one. But… I wouldn't mind the other things. As long as they're normal, and in a place I actually feel comfortable in. Like the forge room."

"Deal." Arex flinched a little at how quickly he agreed. "But hey, I do have some books about stuff involving magic if you want to read 'em sometime. Perfectly safe, promise," he replied, trying for a pinky swear this time instead of a high five.

She considered it with a glance to his raised hand, but again, just gestured him outside and shook her head. "I'm not really that interested in magic. Stuff like this _really_ puts me on edge, so… I think I'll stick to my own studies and projects. I'll never be able to use that magic anyway."

"You never know. Circumstances can change…" he said, snapping his fingers, "just like that. I mean, you might be some sort of Archmage or something for all we know."

"I doubt that," Arex muttered, glancing out to the closed storefronts now.

"Can I at least get a handshake? I should at least get that much since I helped get us out," Dante asked.

If she didn't know any better, he almost sounded like he was whining.

Arex let go of the door and let it swing closed as she moved onto the sidewalk, letting it shut in his face.

He caught it before it hit him. "Meh… It'll happen someday! Maybe!"

"Unlikely," Arex corrected, but there was the tiniest smile on her face. "Right now, I'd rather just go home."

"Can we get bagels on the way?" he asked. "I'm actually a bit hungry for once. I'll buy. And, well, drive. If Ghost doesn't try to murder me with my own car."

"I thought you didn't need food," Arex responded, crossing her arms on the sidewalk.

"That I don't. But I do like to eat sweets and pastries here and there," he said, stepping out onto the sidewalk with her. "Inuba's doughnuts are just to die for…"

"But hers are the only ones you'll eat," Arex voiced again, remembering what he said when they first met. "I _did_ kind of take that personally, by the way."

"Hey, I never had your sweets before, so I wouldn't be able to tell. If you bake some one day, I'll happily try some."

"Don't hold your breath. Kit's probably going to eat what I set aside for anyone else," the phoenix responded, glancing back to him now with a small smile. "But I'm thinking of opening back up the bakery during a weekend off. Once things settle down, anyway. So you can try it then."

"Exact time and date and I will wait outside for hours. Kidding, but also not kidding. I'll probably be there thirty minutes before opening." He paused a moment, having a sudden thought. "Maybe ten minutes."

"Ten minutes and there'll probably already be a line," Arex admitted with a thoughtful tilt of her head, trying to run the math. "A lot of my usuals really miss it…"

She felt bad about that, but it couldn't be avoided with Beacon on her plate now.

"I will be first through the door… No matter what!" he proudly declared with a brief pose. "Do you run the place by yourself?"

"I do. And you know I can just let you in if you get there super early…" Arex offered quietly. "I'm not going to make you stand outside just because I haven't flipped the sign yet."

"Ah… You're so nice Arex! Really!"

"Or, maybe I won't…" Arex finished, glancing back to him, smile still present. "I'm not that nice."

"I know nice people when I see 'em. To me and some others, you're definitely part of the nice person club."

"Yeah, keep thinking that." Arex didn't want to sound bashful, so she went a little sarcastic instead as her ears picked up the gentle purr of Dante's car.

Sounded like their ride was going to be here soon.

* * *

"You know, he said we'd have the place to ourselves, but…" Ano leaned back as she glanced around, taking in the quiet ambiance of the empty, spotless dining area. "You'd think he would've left a few staff people to close up."

"It _does_ seem kinda empty in here," Ly replied as she scanned the area around them. "Even the other customers seem scarce…"

"Well, it's past the usual closing time for this place," Anoel figured with a soft sigh. "And it makes sense not to bother his workers with asking them to stay overtime just for us two."

"And here I thought we'd scared everybody off," Ly commented lightly as she daintily picked at what remained of her food. "Wouldn't be the first time."

Anoel rolled her eyes playfully before looking back to her date, watching her fiddle with her fork. "It wouldn't, but the place is empty. I don't even sense the owner's heat anymore."

The info-broker tapped the table lightly with the pads of her fingers before looking a little confused. It wasn't like Agila to leave before his restaurant was closed up.

"Isn't that disconcerting to you?" Ly asked, her teeth lightly biting into her bottom lip as she dropped her fork and gazed around the restaurant. "Who's going to lock up once this place is closed?"

Ano figured she'd have to do it, with the way things were going. But it wasn't like him to leave that responsibility to her without informing her first.

"My apologies for the wait," a man's voice spoke from nearby, approaching their table.

Anoel's tapping immediately slowed as she tensed a little in her seat. She hadn't sensed his heat at all… but she swore she gave the building a small little sweep.

He… wasn't giving any heat off.

She drew her eyes over to him and spotted his white waiter's apron first, which meant he seemingly worked here. Ash colored hair nearly reached his chin in a slightly messy style, just a few stray strands coming down from his bangs to the bridge of his nose.

Ano quickly took in the rest of his appearance from there. Black dress pants, tucked white long sleeved dress shirt, black dress vest, sleeves rolled up. He _looked_ like a genuine waiter, save for the band around his waist. It was black, hanging diagonally with silver edges and a formally written "A" at its center.

Anoel just felt it was odd to see a new face this late at night, considering she'd been spotting out the rest of the staff every once in a while as the date went on.

Her eyes quietly regarded his through the man's rectangular-rimmed glasses, finding a pair of shimmering silvery gray irises calmly looking back at her.

"The owner had an important matter to tend to and left both the restaurant, and you, in my care. As I recall, you both partook of the main course. Was it to your liking?" he asked with a smile.

"It was, thank you," Ano replied curtly, but reservedly. She didn't recognize his voice either. Which worried her, considering she knew the face and voice of just about everyone in the city.

"Who might you be?" the info-broker asked lightly, resting her arms back onto the table as she sat up a little. "Agila never mentioned hiring anyone new recently."

Ly stayed quiet as Ano spoke, silently watching as her eyes alternated between her date and the new waiter.

"I was a new arrival in Vale yesterday and was searching for work. The owner was kind enough to oblige after proving my capabilities, hence why I shall be in your service for the remainder of the night," he said with a bow.

That didn't sound right.

"Mind if I ask where everyone else went?" Ly perked up as she questioned politely.

"Alas, the day was long before we had the pleasure of your arrival. I thought it best that the rest of my coworkers leave for the night and take a much earned rest after a hard day of work."

"Forgive me for asking in return then, but Agila isn't exactly a fan of hiring just about anybody," Anoel spoke up now, giving the man a pensive but calm look. "He's a stickler for anyone new. Leaving his entire establishment in your hands…? He must really trust you."

"I'm a man of many capabilities. But to be more precise young miss," he said glancing to Anoel. "He left it to 'our' care as employees. As a new worker, seeing the exhausted expressions of my fellow coworkers pained me greatly. And so I asked of them to return home for the night to allow me to handle the rest."

"Odd," Anoel chided openly, resting her cheek in her hand to convey a small passiveness to her nature. "Agila assured me that he'd see us off before we left. He was quite adamant on meeting the 'very special someone' I was taking out with me."

"He had a family emergency I'm afraid and left in a hurry. He asked me to convey his regret in not being able to meet the other young miss."

"Awe, I hope his niece is alright," Anoel replied, sinking into her hand as she let her eyes roam back up to their new waiter's gaze. "She's his favorite."

"Ah yes, I heard him speak highly of his niece earlier. To have a family to love and care for truly is a wonderful thing…"

"It is, actually," Ano replied. "You don't have any?"

"Unfortunately, I have long since been seperated from my family. Part of the reason for my arrival in Vale is to find them again soon, if possible."

Anoel hummed softly before glancing to Ly, reaching over to take her hand before moving to stand. "Well, I hope you find them. I'm sure you're more than capable. And to help out, we'll cut your night a little short."

"Mayhaps I suggest some desert before you are… whisked away for the night?" he said, quirking his eyebrows.

The phoenix smiled politely as the two stood in their heels, Anoel brushing down her silky black dress for a moment. "I think we're fine, thank you."

"Are you sure? I can have it out in but a few more minutes since I've already started working on the special."

"I'm sorry for the inconvenience then," Anoel replied back with a small smile. "We're quite full. And I'm sure you're eager to lock up once we leave to continue with your own night."

"A shame…" he said, walking off to the side. "And here I thought you would have the pleasure of having my chocolate gateau cake before leaving."

"Well, as you said, it's not quite done yet. And I'm sure you can enjoy it yourself. We don't want to intrude on your night anymore than we already ha-"

"Poke~"

Anoel's voice fell flat as a numbing touch tapped the back of her neck. The arm she had wrapped around Ly's waist suddenly lost all feeling.

 _W-What the hell…?_

"Now, before you attempt anything, I would advise that you not waste your efforts in using your Semblances," the man spoke, leaning down between the two. "And in your case Ms. Anoel, your Affinity."

Anoel was already trying to tap into it, but the numbness spread to the rest of her body and froze it up before she could.

And with it, she… couldn't feel her Aura anymore.

"I've nullified your Aura, therefore nullifying your Semblance, as well as your Affinity. And before you ask, it isn't anything so simplistic as a standard nullification. It's so much more," he said, straightening back up.

The phoenix grit her teeth as she slowly narrowed her eyes. Their clear path to the door ahead of them grew more and more blurred. But even that feeling felt sluggish and straining as she growled through pressed lips.

She couldn't even move her jaw. Who the hell does this guy think he is?

"I've taken over your nerves entirely as well. See?" He nodded, then she felt the unnerving feeling of her arms raising up to clap twice. "Complete and total control."

An asshole, that's what. And he was _ruining_ her _date_.

Her numbed jaw tensed, trying to squeeze the life out of her loose fingers and turn them into fists. All she had left was the overwhelming urge to stab him.

"Before I give you the chance to speak, I feel it my duty to advise you that you won't be able to shout either. Inside voices only I'm afraid. But… to offer you more incentive…"

His hand raised up, and from the corner of Anoel's eye, she could see Lylac's head slowly twisting toward her, stopping just at the point of capable tension.

The point just before the threshold of snapping it.

Anoel's heart sank as her body grew colder, despite the seething feeling of anger trying to force its way back to the surface.

Did he... really have the control... to make Ly kill herself?

What the _hell_ was he after?!

"I really don't enjoy these types of tasks, but it is a must I'm afraid. I am only here for you and you alone, phoenix."

"T-Then… _leave_ Ly… _out of it_ ," Anoel growled, the high tension on her jaw subsiding just enough for her to speak.

Ano's gaze tried to switch to Lylac. From what she saw, Ly's eyes were scared, but their dark blue hue glared at the man with an unbridled malice all the same.

"I'm the one you want. _Not her_." Ano's eyes tore away from Ly's face to find the man slowly stepping in front of them, that dull, numbing sensation seeping deeper into the rest of her body.

"No need to restate the obvious. So long as you understand you're in no position to do anything whatsoever…" he said, flicking his hand downward to return Ly's neck to its original position. "Then nothing happens to dear, sweet Lylac."

"Y-You son of a bitch…" Lylac growled as her eyes flicked to his own. "I'll fucking _kill_ you."

He let out an amused chuckle. "Worse than you have tried, my dear. Now then, on to business." He pulled up a chair between them, resting his chin in his hands. "Due to my capabilities, I unfortunately must be the one to capture you and bring you in."

"You're _dead_ , _"_ Lylac continued as her eyes stayed locked with his. "I-It may not be me that d-does it... but you're fu-"

Another flick of his hand and Lylac's voice cut off. "Yes yes, so have you and thousands of others have told me countless times before. A very old story, one of which I've unfortunately heard too many times before."

Anoel just grit her teeth further as she tried to force _some_ marginal amount of heat into her muscles. "You have me. Why don't you just let her go and get on with it?"

Lylac was in danger. Very _real_ and sudden danger, and the simple feeling of it made Anoel's entire being feel sick.

Something that actually sank in faster and harder than whatever paralyzing ability he used on them.

"Of course. As soon as I take you, however, I don't quite want the pleasure of taking on your mad dog yet. That's a task reserved for someone else in the future."

" _Then_ you should know the _longer_ you keep me here, the closer he gets," Anoel growled back.

He chuckled briefly. "Now consider this…" he said leaning in closer to Anoel. "At what point did you assume he was in any position to catch me?"

"You think he _cares_ about any position he's in?" Anoel's low voice spoke back, darkening eyes leveling with her captor's. "Even if he was _powerless_ , he'd claw through whatever Hell I was dragged into to get me back."

"Heh heh… Believe me when I say Hell is quite vast my dear."

" _He_. _Doesn't_. _Care_."

"And neither do I of Ezdeil. His time will come soon enough. Not by my hand, but… soon enough by another's. Now unfortunately, our time is up," he said, standing from his chair. "So with this, I bid you adieu, Lylac Chroma. And as for you, ms. Anoel… we'll be going on quite the adventure together."

He placed a hand on her shoulder, and she couldn't help but feel disgusted under his cold, numbing touch. But as her vision grew startlingly darker, her body and his vanished in a streak of silver-gray Aura.

Lylac stumbled forward as soon as the stifling grasp on her nerves came back to her, her eyes darting to where Anoel and the man vanished before she felt her legs buckle to the ground.

"N-Niro…"

Her voice was breathless at first, but as her lungs drew in air, she let out a blood curdling scream of desperation.

" _Niro-!_ "

The lights around her flickered just as the wall to her immediate right blew inward, debris crashing through the room as her numbed senses slowly turned to the familiar figure standing nearby.

Green eyes fell to her before turning to the chair in front of her collapsed frame, then to the door.

He didn't say anything as she breathed raggedly, nerves firing across her body to try to get some semblance of control back.

"H-He took her…"

But she still managed to breathe out a few words as she watched his hands draw into tight, straining fists.

"T-That asshole took Anoel…!"

* * *

Kitsuki poked at her seat warmer to turn it off as GHOST drove her back to the alley where they last left Dante and Arex. Or at least, that's what the pixie filled her in about.

She must've missed it when she fell asleep.

"We're here," GHOST calmly stated, turning her gaze to the kitsune with a little smile. "Probably won't be long until they get back, so continue to make yourself comfortable. That's all you've been doing anyway."

Kit didn't want to get comfortable again, though. She felt bad about putting Arex in a position that left her alone with someone.

Her eyes drifted to the front door of the diner as it slowly opened, spotting her partner and Dante step out into the night air under the nearest street lamp.

The girl looked tired… And Kit was right, Arex was exhausted.

* * *

"It might be too late to ask, but everything good with you?" Dante asked, turning to Arex once the car pulled up. "Nothing… displaced internally, or feel weird?"

Arex didn't know exactly what he meant by that, but she tried to offer him a small smile, despite feeling physically exhausted from what they just pulled off. "Not that I know of."

Her eyes turned to see the car slowly come to a stop at the sidewalk just ahead of them. Then she saw Kitsuki push the passenger door open and step out.

"You're awake," Arex voiced softly, watching as Kit ran her hands over her tails before pushing her car door shut.

The kitsune gave a tiny nod of affirmation.

" _Sorry I fell asleep on you,"_ she signed, ears turning down for a moment as Arex gave a small smile.

"Don't worry about it. I didn't want to wake you." Arex's eyes turned to GHOST, peering at her through the windshield. "How long was she asleep for?"

She honestly had no idea how long they spent inside. It was already dark out, it had to be longer than it felt…

"The whole time," the AI responded promptly. "I wasn't really paying much attention."

"In any case, problem solved," Dante interjected. He sounded like all this was just in an average day's work. "And I'm no longer mini-me. Thanks guys."

"I… didn't really do much," Arex muttered, smile turning a little ashamed. She was more just the company, really.

" _I did nothing,"_ Kit added, a lazy look crossing her face. _"How did you grow up so fast?"_

She liked it when he was smaller than her.

"I found a large quarter tank of milk. And drank it," he answered Kitsuki first. "And you were invaluable help. Your flames worked like a wonder in distracting that… whatever it was…"

"It wasn't really much of a fire… it was more just your shoe," Arex replied. Though, it helped the crates he threw it into were filled with something flammable, considering the fires spread over a _much_ wider area than she was anticipating.

Kit's head tilted for a few long moments as she danced her gaze between the two, eyes falling into a determined, curious stare. _"Where was the magic milk?"_

"In a separate plane of existence from this mortal realm," Dante answered immediately. "One which you should never want to go to. Ever. Even if you want to grow taller."

Kit frowned before shrugging a single shoulder, turning her gaze back to Arex. _"I'll just get milk through Arex. Are we leaving soon?"_

The phoenix took those words with stride. Or rather, her eyes blinked with a wide, incredulous stare before she hesitantly shook her head, blush creeping in. "I-I can buy milk for you, if you want."

" _It needs to be special milk."_

"I-It will be?" Arex offered with a small squeak. Where would she buy special milk…? Maybe almond milk would work. Or chocolate milk.

"We can leave whenever they get in the car. I'm sure we all have things to do. I know _I_ do…" GHOST spoke out amidst the descending awkward silence over the conversation.

Kit's chin dipped in a satisfied nod as Arex felt her soft blush quietly die away, but she turned her gaze to the sky when she noticed Kit's eyes watching it fade into her pale cheeks.

It really was late tonight. Even with the night sky overhead, it was hard seeing the stars with all the lights around, a few of them flickering softly.

"How late is it?" Arex asked idly, turning her gaze to the street light flashing over the diner windows.

"Midnight," GHOST replied calmly. "Ly's probably waiting for you two at the apartment."

Arex gave a small nod as she looked back to GHOST in the car, only to see her hologram flicker for a moment in the windshield. Wait, flicker? The engine of the car suddenly died with an eerie silence. The startling drop of its noise cut into the street, letting a chilling nervousness settle over Arex in the next breeze.

The phoenix immediately pulled out her scroll, flicking it open to let the slim projectors she recently installed unfold. "GHOST?"

Arex booted into the Sentinel bios from her CPU chip, something that directly connected her to GHOST wherever she was in the world. But as soon as she got in, her screen blinked with a connection error.

 _H-How…?_ They weren't that far from a scroll relay. That was impossible… their secure network was even connected through the CCT's.

"My signal's down too. Which shouldn't be possible considering where we are…" Dante spoke from next to her, Arex sliding her scroll closed as she frowned.

The buzzing of the lights ahead of them grew in the heavy silence of the empty street, any semblance of other human life long gone in the lateness of the hour. And that only added to Arex's growing nervousness.

"You can drive us back, right?" Arex asked, eyes turning to the dead car. "Once you get it started again?"

"Yeah, of course. But the car dying too… Something's not right here…" he said, glancing around them.

Arex turned to Kit as her partner poked the dark windshield of their ride, watching as her tails swayed slightly in the night air.

Air that was feeling awfully cold, all of a sudden.

"W-We're… still not in that dimension… are we?" Arex asked slowly, the flickering of the street lights starting to spread to the others now. She could feel the temperature slipping away from the air, and her breath shook all the more.

Every light down the entire row of city blocks flickered rampantly. Maybe it was the cold sweeping through the area, or an energy surge happening nearby, but the buzzing noises filling her ears drowned away what little mental stability she thought she had when they got out.

"No, it was limited to the diner. It has no way of expanding outward at all, especially since we dealt with the singularity," Dante said, voice trailing softer near the end. "This… is something else."

Something else…? Arex's legs felt stiff, her eyes transitioning over the lights down the row over and over again. She just felt… tense.

And that tension tore a squeak out of her like an alarm as the street lamp above them shattered. Sparks rained down from the busted glass as her shoulders pulled tightly into her body, frantic eyes watching as the breaking bulb above them set off a chain reaction.

A matching concussive noise rang out in waves as every bulb running down the streetline shattered one after the other, shooting down the sidewalks before the night left them in a looming darkness.

"I-I t-think we should… g-go now…" Arex murmured, nerves flaring through her throat. Her legs felt like lead now as she tried to move them.

They stayed stuck to the ground. Her muscles were sore from before, but they were starting to ache a lot more than they were just a few moments ago.

"That's going to be difficult for you at the moment… There's an energy current flowing through the ground that's tensing up your muscles, making it hard for you to move," Dante stated before looking back into the darkness. "I know you're out there. I can feel the evil radiating from you. Come on out so we can have a little 'talk'."

Arex's eyes turned down to her frozen legs. She… suddenly realized a subtle twitch shaking them from the ground up. Like an impulsive, tiny vibration running through her body.

No wonder why her legs ached so much…

Her eyes widened in worry as a pang of urgency hit her. She quickly glanced up to Kit, the girl's own eyes were locked on the ground between her stiff legs by the car.

The movement in her tails was completely still, the twisted bundle of fur settling between her legs as her ears drooped heavily atop her head.

"Kit?" She looked scared… Petrified. And Arex's mind flashed with the same images of Kit's terrified face when she locked herself in that closet during one of Beacon's storms.

The phoenix's shaking skin drew cold as Kit's gaze slowly made its way up to her, wide eyes staring back at Arex in a growing look of disbelief and fear.

That dread immediately filtered into Arex's own eyes as she tried to force her legs forward, to get to her. Even if it was just slightly enough to start closing that distance they had.

"D-Dante, c-can you-"

Arex's entire body reeled in shock as the energy shooting up from the ground surged, a stifled cry of pain ripping out of her throat as a loud series of echoing crashes stormed down the street.

Every storefront window broke in a series of parallel, thundering crashes. Bursts of glass cascaded in outward explosions mirrored across every stretch of road. And Arex had to snap her eyes closed as the scattering glass struck her side.

"You should try your best not to move," a male voice spoke, and the waves of raining shards stopped. Those words froze her more than the electricity coursing through her body, grinding her mind to a stop. "Breaking that connection you have with the ground means you're no longer grounded."

Arex tore her eyes open to see a fading streak of light flash in front of her… Directly behind where Kitsuki stood. A pair of piercing gold eyes peered from over Kit's shoulder. The kitsune's body went rigid as a slim, sparking finger pressed into the side of her neck.

Platinum blonde hair drifted in the dead wind from the lean boy slowly starting to wrap his arm around Kitsuki's waist, keeping his frame situated behind the girl as the energy coursing through the area began to escalate.

And Arex felt her jaw struggling to move as it tensed beneath the oncoming waves of electricity, eyes narrowing at the sight of the boy touching her partner.

A hidden blade moved through the dark just behind him, carefully aimed at the new arrival's neck, but that sickening smile twisted across his lips grew before a golden light erupted from his irises.

The gold-colored material of his jacket surged before he and Kit disappeared, a blinding streak of lightning arcing into the air before rapidly darting to the edge of the building across the street.

Arex had just enough movement to turn her eyes and watch as the teen appeared at the top of the building's edge, holding an unconscious Kit in his arms as he smiled down at them.

"Consider this a formal invitation to my manor, miss Arex," the boy spoke down at her, and the twinge of her name shook her in a growing tremble as she tried to urge her body to move again. To do something. To _say_ something. "But I'm afraid I must be on my way. Guests are soon to arrive, and I mustn't keep them waiting at my door for too long, now can I? After all, a Chroma is always worth making a little time for."

 _Chroma…?_

That youthful, condescending voice grated Arex in every way before another flash erupted from the building's roof, the figures silhouetted in the night sky vanishing in a blurred streak of golden lightning.

"N-No…" Arex finally managed to get out, the tightness in her jaw melting away before she felt her numb legs give out.

Dante's swift arm caught her and lifted her up into his arms before she could collapse fully, her body growing limp as the electrical current finally left it.

"As unfortunate as this may sound, I know now he's the person I was looking for…" Dante slowly said, eyes fixed on the scorch marks streaking up the side of the building.

Arex's wide eyes stared at the ground, _wanting_ to fall to pieces as her mind ran too rampantly for her to get any thoughts together. "Whois he…?"

Her voice was startlingly steady, but the desperation in her tone was the only emotion she managed to convey.

"I don't know who he is exactly, but I know one thing for certain now."

Her breathing was starting to grow shallow as she closed her eyes, trying to stop her body from shaking any worse than it already was.

"He's the one who killed Kitsuki's previous partner."

* * *

 **I'm part of a Discord server now? Link below.**

* * *

 **Oh the woes of college…** **At least this was a big chapter with a turning point. Maybe the Omake can help lighten things up?**

 **Remember Sylvius? The condescending guy Niro spoke with and pursued? The Maestro who owns a Lightning Dust mine and a Lightning Dust Core? Yeah, that guy (I hope)!**

 **I mentioned a long several chapters ago when Arex and Kit were at Beacon that a certain chapter would come creeping back up with real importance. That chapter was titled "Afraid". It featured Kitsuki's paralyzing fear to a certain element.**

 **As for Ly and Ano's date, well… I wouldn't expect any mercy from Niro's end.**

 **For now,** _ **Favorite**_ **and** _ **Follow**_ **the story.**

 **I look forward to seeing** _ **REVIEWS**_ **for this. You'll be introduced to a LOT of concepts of mine. Feel free to give me your thoughts.**

 **Cya XP**

 **Also! If you wanted to speak with me more freely, I'm part of a Discord server with a handful of authors. Feel free to drop in and say hi and stay if you want to stick around.**

* * *

 _ **[ discord . gg / YU8A6Bp ]**_

 **Don't forget to remove the spaces if you do use the link. FFN is finicky with formatting.**

* * *

 **Omake:** _by Xera Stark_

* * *

Arex felt surrounded. No, she felt _trapped_ right now as she tried to manage her hectic breathing and handle each question one at a time.

And the situation _didn't_ help her emotions if she had to call each of them by name. Their masculine name.

"Okay, okay. Wait." The phoenix slowly breathed out, shuddering as she got some of her hyperventilating under control. When she opened her eyes, she drew her legs up onto the bed and eyed the three girls standing in her room carefully. "I'm renaming all of you."

" _Seriously?_ " Ray asked in her more… submissive but still somehow firm voice, already hating the idea.

"Yes, _Rae_. I'm changing your last letter to an 'e' in my mind," Arex replied dryly. She felt the bed shift for a moment and found Kitsuki settling down beside her, the phoenix resting herself against her partner's weight before eyeing the other two. "As for you two…"

"Call me Nira," Niro said- or rather, _Nira_ cutely stated, voice soft but clear.

 _God_ Arex still needed to get used to this…

"That leaves you," the phoenix finished, eyeing Dante and her more endowed form, compared to the other two. Did she really have to wear the tight clothes?

She could've gone without it…

 _Just saying_.

"How's Danni?" Arex asked.

"Meh, it's pretty good," she said with a shrug.

"Would you rather me call you 'Dante' in public then? Seeing as you clearly don't like the name," Arex retaliated, a tense huff leaving her lips.

"Hey, I was agreeing with you alright? Don't twist your wings into a knot," _Danni_ replied, giving Arex an attractive but sour look.

Just stop.

Stop looking hot…

"Okay-" Arex blinked and straightened up slightly as she flicked her gaze to the sound of her closet door sliding open. Nira was gently ruffling through her hanging clothes. "Hey, I didn't say you could borrow anything yet."

"Just browsing," Nira replied calmly, humming as she leaned herself back and forth amidst her searching. "Can you teach me how to cook again? Do girls cook? I feel like I need to know this…" she voiced out in that effeminate, cute voice.

 _Damn it!_ Did she _have_ to sound so endearing there…?

"Y-Yeah, sure," Arex murmured. It honestly looked like Nira's personality switched out all its aggressiveness with curiosity… and undying cuteness.

The latter was a real thing. Arex _knew_ it was.

Because Kitsuki existed.

"What the hell do I do when downstairs starts bleeding?" Rae asked, taking a look down the front of the jeans that were too big for her. "It better not start _now_."

Right… Arex turned a narrow gaze to the blonde. "You stick a tampon in."

"A what?" Violet eyes turned to Arex as she lifted her head.

"The thin and round cotton thing numbskull. Almost like the round cotton swabs they use at the dentist," Danni answered.

"No… no it's not like those at all…" Arex deadpanned in a disbelieving, insulted tone. "There is absolutely nothing in common with that…"

She actually looked genuinely disgusted.

"Are you so sure?" Danni asked with a challenging smile.

"Also… define ' _in'_ ," Rae asked a little skeptically as her brow furrowed.

Arex sighed exasperatedly and put her head in her hands. "I am _not_ answering that…" Her skin paled a moment later.

She was in _no way_ going to graphically describe that. Or demonstrate it.

"Just look it up or something," the girl sighed, lifting her gaze to fix Danni with a curious stare. "What about you? Won't your healing just stop it or something?"

It was a natural process, but still…

"Huh… Never thought about that before now… I'll ask my sister when I get the chance," Danni answered simply.

"I wonder _why_ you never thought of that…" Rae murmured sarcastically as she shuffled over to one of the beds and sat down, pulling out her scroll and quickly typing something.

Arex shook her head at all this, tossing a desperate glance to Nira in her closet. "What about you, Nira?"

The short girl's green eyes turned her way before shrugging, going back to browsing Arex's personal closet. "I'll probably bleed."

She sounded… so casual about all this.

A blue scroll suddenly flew across the room and struck the far wall before falling onto the bed beneath it. "No way. _No!_ I'm not doing that!"

Arex turned back to Rae and sighed, _loudly_. "You _have_ to."

Rae fixed her with a harsh glare. "Like _hell_ I do! I'm cutting this womb out!"

The phoenix physically grimaced in pain at the thought. "How do you know that won't affect your male alternate form?"

"I-I…!" The girl paused before retaliating, visibly thinking it over. "God dammit…"

"I can help you if you need," Nira's voice spoke out from the closet, head and hat buried in a wall of sweaters as she dug around.

"I don't think you helping will solve this kind of problem…" Danni replied.

Nira poked her head back out of the closet for a second as she gave Danni a determined, firm look. "Sure it will. She won't have to do it, and I won't have to call Ly to do it for her."

Please no… " _Nobody_ here is calling _anyone_ ," Arex stated clearly, her voice hard. She did _not_ want Anoel or Lylac finding out about _any_ of this.

"I…" Now _Rae_ sounded like she was hyperventilating. "w-would rather… build a-an _igloo_ in the middle of Solitas and _live there_ for the r-rest of my life, than let Ly find out about _this,_ " she stated very sternly and clearly, gesturing to her lithe body strewn in oversized clothes. But not without a few stressful squeaks in her voice here and there.

"Hey, look who I have on speed dial!" Danni exclaimed with a smug smirk as she brought up a holographic screen.

"Danni, I also have _Inuba_ on dial too," Arex interrupted, glaring at the girl. "And your siblings."

"So?" she asked, unimpressed with the threat.

"Fine," Arex sighed, plucking her scroll up from where it rested on the bed as she heard a camera shutter go off beside her. Several more firing soon after as Kitsuki took a few pictures.

"You know little bird…" Danni walked over to Arex. "I discovered something really interesting ever since I changed into this form."

Her tall form easily towered over Arex as she stood before her. "I'm actually far more predatory in this state. You understand, don't you?" she asked, leaning in closer.

Arex instinctively leaned away from the breach of her personal space, her eyes narrowing at the white-haired girl. But she couldn't stop the flush of red passing through her cheeks.

"Typical… stuck in the middle of a huge problem and this one makes a joke of it…" Rae muttered to herself disdainfully as she crossed her arms.

The phoenix looked away before she felt another shift on the bed, the thump of a scroll dropping onto the sheets echoing quietly as Kitsuki pushed Danni away.

Then silently sat herself down in Arex's lap with a territorial look in her eyes.

"Just making sure she knows before she thinks about hitting send," Danni said with a shrug. "I'm much faster than you think I am."

"And much more perverted, apparently," Arex stated in a dead tone.

"Hey, Arex?" Nira's adorable voice called out, almost sounding lost.

The phoenix gazed over Kitsuki's shoulder to see the raven haired girl standing with two outfits in hand. Neither of them had her usual accompanying sweater, but both of them were a tad more loose and sleeveless than she'd like.

"How come you don't wear any of this and just wear those sweaters all the time? You'd look good in these," Nira asked.

Arex nervously flushed red at that.

"Yeah, no kidding. You should show off more," Danni proudly said, patting Arex's back a bit forcefully. The action only made her feel worse.

"Are there any jeans in there?" Rae's voice asked quietly.

"Nope. Doesn't seem like it," Nira replied.

"Sweatpants? Leggings?" Rae listed almost desperately.

Nira's head dipped in a short nod before smiling softly. "Plenty of those."

A relieved sigh escaped Rae's lips as she stood up quickly. "Good, then I'm taking these off."

"Do you need her underwear too?" Nira asked first, unknowingly stunning Arex again with a sweeping blush of embarrassment.

"Can we _not_ rummage through my underwear drawer? _Please?_ " Arex squeaked out, shooting the hardest glare she could Nira's way.

"I'll give them back," Rae returned quickly, reaching for her waist and beginning to pull her oversized jeans off.

"I don't _want_ them back!" Arex yelled, her blush spreading to her ears again before Kit turned around in her lap and covered the phoenix's eyes.


	54. Red

Rogue Huntsman

Red

«»

Splinters shattered across the far wall as I kicked myself into the whitest, blandest, most toxic dorm room of the entire building, the doorknob breaking through the window across the way.

I'd already carried Ly back to her apartment on my way over here for the sole reason of making sure she wasn't left alone. And now, my eyes tracked across the room to see two sets of gazes pinned on me in the broken door frame.

"You." My voice came out dry, its hoarseness dwarfed by a calm, demanding lowness I rarely fell into.

The pompous prick who took Anoel masked her heat signature and was doing something to her Aura to keep her off the grid. I couldn't sense her. It ground into every nerve in my body that some _asshole_ would even _try_ this, let alone get away with it.

And when I find them?

I'm going to drop a mountain over their skull and crush whatever life they have left into dust.

"Chaotic energy that leaves little to no trace." I could already feel the tension in the air starting to quake as I tightened my fists, the walls rippling and warping around my form before I cared to calm the hell down. "Can _either_ of you trace it?"

"I-I um…" one of the sorry voices started.

My eyes snapped to the girl who'd been pacing restlessly around the room, red irises immediately shooting away from mine as she stepped back a bit and hid behind her scarlet bangs. She was Ray's partner.

A small _hint_ of a spark of molten, blood red lurched from her Aura.

It reeked of chaos energy.

"You're coming with me," I ordered. If she was made of it, she could track it.

The tension in my hand settled as the girl froze on the spot, her confusion turning into a slew of uncertainty. An aggravatingly slow nod dipped her head a second later, before she quietly muttered her response.

"O-Okay…"

The only other occupant in the room jumped to her feet at that. "N-Now wait a moment!"

" _Not. Now_ ," I cut back immediately, snapping my gaze to Dante's kitsune standing at my right before dragging that gaze back to Scarlet. "Grab a weapon. If you have one."

"You'll have to make due for a brief explanation then!" Inuba yelled. "You cannot simply barge in here and demand she go with you wherever you please simply because _you_ demanded it!"

Scarlet's gaze snapped to her for a moment before she shook her head. "H-He looks angry. I don't want to keep him waiting…"

 _No. Fucking. Shit._ This _entire_ abduction wasn't the plan. Anoel wants to face _Quinn_ alone. Not get abducted by some sadistic sociopath with a kink for interesting birds.

Inuba huffed. "I won't allow you to leave with him until he explains why exactly he requires your presence. Now, explain yourself briefly, Mr. Ezdeil."

"I-It's fine…" Scarlet had an assured look as she eyed Inuba, trying to get her to back down. But the girl hesitated for a moment, returning her gaze to me. " _Right?_ "

I ignored her. Because everything damn well _wasn't_ fine.

"I'm taking Scarlet," I said again. "I can do that. I _will_ do that. And I'm _doing_ it."

The wall and its door frame rattled again as I took a breath, the toxic air seizing in my lungs as I choked it down.

"Not until you explain yourself," Inuba said, stepping forward.

"Stop being so damn persistent, fox," I growled, tearing my gaze away to see Scarlet step around me and into the hall. "Somebody who I'm pretty sure is _your_ problem just abducted _my_ partner. And I'm getting her back. I just need someone who can actually _trace_ the damn energy residue he left behind."

"Then…" Inuba's eyes widened before she stepped back, hesitating with her response. "Despite previous warnings, I will assist you. My sensory skills should prove useful in high accurate tracking, wherever they may be. And… should Ms. Anoel be injured in some way-"

" _Fine_ ," I snapped. We were burning time. "Just keep up."

I turned and stepped into the hall, holding in another tense breath to keep myself from eviscerating the whole damn hallway. When my gaze snapped back to the girl waiting out there, she already had her weapon strapped.

Good.

I leaned over and picked the little wiggling thing up before turning to Inuba, my annoyed scowl worsening just at the image of her.

Because the kitsune could _actually_ fight and be irritatingly useful.

My voice came out dry again. Hard. Irrevocable. "I'm killing him when we find him. Don't bother trying to stop me."

"I… suppose I won't…" Inuba replied slowly, her hand extending to summon her katana in a burst of white flame. She tucked it into her black sash once it fell into her grasp. "Lead the way then, Mr. Ezdeil."

At least I didn't have to worry about her getting in my way. And I'll be sure to thank whatever god let her make that decision later, since she didn't seem to mind me painting the streets with that asshole's corpse.

With half an attempt to keep Scarlet's neck from snapping, I lifted her just high enough to hold her against my chest before sprinting back to the restaurant.

The air I crashed into shattered the front windows of the building as I came to a stop, a concussive, quaking wave ripping through the area as I stepped into the hole I made earlier.

Red, misty Aura was already starting to fluctuate from Scarlet as I dropped the girl onto the chair Anoel disappeared near.

Inuba moved in after me, stepping out of a little burst of white flame.

"He can teleport. But every translocation of matter leaves a trail, and your Aura's already reacting to it," I said, eyeing the red-haired girl scrambling to right herself in her new seat before I stepped toward the door behind her. "I'd tear the city up block by block, but that could take all week."

"It isn't so simple as using only an apparatus to transit themselves here and there," Inuba spoke up, _lecturing_ me for some godforsaken reason. "The traces here are certainly of Chaotic nature, but the movement was done in a way to create no trail. However, if I attune my sensory abilities accordingly, I can find a similar trace of this Aura, wherever it may be."

Just shut up and find her.

Scarlet's finger suddenly shot out and pointed west, almost as soon as she steadily rose to her feet. "That way."

Her gaze hardened as the fluctuations in her Aura grew more volatile, staring blankly in the direction she pointed in.

Inuba followed the girl's direction with her gaze. "Yes… Precisely 87 miles to the west."

I picked the bloodhound up again and blew out the western wing of the restaurant, kicking off from the street just on the other side before letting the holes in the building repair themselves.

The old man had enough to worry about.

"We'll be there in a few seconds," I muttered into the tearing wind, a green field of my Aura shoving forward to make sure the wind wrapped around us instead of collected at our front like last time.

This was a greater distance to cover. I wasn't about to rip a trailing rift of vacuumed air down the center of Vale's central districts as we left the kingdom.

When we made it outside the city walls, I dropped it. Grimm and trees smoldered in a heated wake of long trailing plasma before I came to a hard, ground-rupturing stop in the face of an embedded mountain facility. All of it gleamed with stacked levels of white cubic structures and indented black lines.

Most of the damn infrastructure was inside the mountain's stone.

 _Unfortunately_ , it was devoid of actual life. But there was still movement inside on every level. So this guy was either blocking me out, or every damn entity in this facility was automated and he was holed up somewhere with Anoel.

"I'm going to knock. You can follow, if you want to. But this is as far as I needed you," I voiced, my eyes staying glued to the wall ahead of me as I dropped Scarlet to her feet. I moved across the clearing between me and _her_ , reaching the reinforced facility's metal frontward wall.

My fingers ghosted over the surface for a moment, my eyes narrowing at what I felt. A subtle buzzing came from its cold, numbing surface.

Something was stopping me from sensing anything other than kinetic energy passing through the molecules.

 _Fine then_.

If this place was built to keep me out, then I hope they thought of everything.

I slowly pushed away from the wall before stepping back, slamming my leg into the wall just once. The molecules in the facility didn't so much as _budge_. So I turned and kicked off back into the forest to skid to a stop just at Vale's kingdom wall.

87 miles, huh? Should be more than enough.

The ground ripped away from my feet as I pushed away from it, a crater of cracks erupting across the city's encompassing border behind me as I plowed back through the forest and crossed the distance back to the wall I touched.

If you wanted to build a _facility_ out of kinetic dispersing materials, reinforce it with a barrier of nullification Dust and energy siphoning generators, _and_ support it with a damn foundation of alloy beams _meant_ to deflect Aura signatures…

You _shouldn't_ have _built_ it between a _mountain…_ and _me_.

I sunk my fist into the wall as the air around me and my entire frame came to a screeching, bone crushing, resounding halt against the facility's wall.

Pain ripped through my arm as the bones inside it fractured and broke as quickly as I put it all back together. But the warping wall caved in for a split second before shattering inward in a spanning, collapsing hole that all but took off the entire northward face of the nine-story building.

Bullets immediately ripped into my body in a hail from inside before I could put a shield up. Blood streamed down my healing arm as my eyes scanned the broken levels in front of me, several rounds slipping by as I looked past humanoid androids and automated turrets.

343 rooms. From what I felt breaking my arm against that wall, at least.

I only needed to find _one_.

My gaze fell back into the streams of bullets assailing me. Dark, metallic figures flashed in blinks of muzzle fire, vizors locked on nothing but me in the open-aired, gaping hole still collapsing in on itself. These weren't the same model of Atlesian Knight Atlas corned recently on the open market. They were more advanced, and made of the same material of the facility's walls.

Just a lighter alloy shell surrounding a heavy internal skeleton. Which meant they were durable. Fast. Highly deadly. And programmed to overwhelm through sheer power and strength, capable of shrugging of direct shots from explosive rounds if they had to.

So I dismantled the nearest one and ripped out its metal skeleton, breaking it piece by piece to jam the sharp piercing ends of it into the visors of the three robots dashing toward me with drawn, Aura-nullifying blades.

"Scarlet!" a shrill voice yelled out from behind me.

I finally put that barrier up as Inuba dropped down to her knees in a rush, the bullets scurrying past me coming to a screeching crawl as I glanced back to follow them.

The red-clad girl I brought here was on the ground, hands clutching at her bleeding stomach and torso. A stream of blood slowly trickled down from her head.

It was just _problem_ after _problem_. But her Aura was only running more and more rampant.

Inuba's glowing hands pulled away from the bleeding girl as streams of red melted from Scarlet's skin. Faded, crystalline mist scattered into the dust-kicked dirt around her as her body twitched slightly.

The crumpled, smoking gleam of a bullet pushed its way out of her forehead as the girl sat up, her shoulders starting to rise and fall heavily with her rampant breathing.

She was trying to rein her energy back in.

 _Why?_

"This isn't the place to hold back," I growled, the concussive, metallic ring of bullets slamming against my Aura shield behind me filling the air. "Just don't kill my partner."

The panting girl shifted her weight to her feet as she moved to a crouched position, breathing only getting heavier as she stood. Red mist poured from her skin now, draining into the ground and scattering over the grass and dirt like a red-tinted, streamlined sandstorm.

Her hands trembled at the epicenter of that billowing field, twitching uncontrollably as her right arm fell to the collapsed hilt of her weapon.

The girl's crimson eyes began glowing as I watched her irises tear a streak of raging red through the air, molten lines of piercing ruby plasma shooting around inside her volatile outpour of energy. She was carrying a red, chaotic thunderstorm in that plume of Aura.

Her fingers curled around her weapon and tightened, knuckles whitening as she unclipped it from the belt around her waist.

"Remove the barrier," she murmured. Her words came out harsh and aggressive as she struggled to contain the anger swelling inside her.

Vermillion energy pulsated around her form with every beat of her heart. Its slow, wisping form starting to manifest in a restrained, protective cloud around her in preparation of the incoming hail.

It was toxic, violent, and devastating. Enough to tear the flesh from a man's bones in an instant.

She was a walking timebomb about to explode.

But I dropped the barrier anyway.

Before the bullets already hounding into it could whistle by, Scarlet kicked off and streaked into the building with an explosion of red.

"As for you," I said, pointing my gaze back to Inuba as the gunfire trained from me to the rampaging girl inside. "If Anoel's hurt, fix her. For now, help me find her inside."

Inuba nodded. "I understand."

The interior walls may have been weaker than the exterior shell of the building, but they still blocked out my senses. Whoever this guy was, he built an entire _building_ specifically designed to _lock me out_.

That was only _pissing me off_ even more.

"I'll take us to the fifth floor to give Scarlet some breathing room," I called out, stepping back into the building before dipping forward and shoving off down the hall.

We passed a whirling, red tornado of enraged death sweeping through the room inside. And I could already _feel_ the energy radiating from her.

If the walls were this strong… then the androids in my way wouldn't be able to hold up against them. So when I kneed a robot into the nearest wall after it sank its coated sword into my arm, I followed it through by grabbing its head and crushing its skull into a metal supporting column as we ran.

White fire immediately surged past me and encompassed the rest of the androids in our way, a cone of wind piercing the middle of the inferno to paint the hallway with warped, glowing metal.

"I see the stories they speak of your aptitude for destruction are very accurate…" Inuba spoke up.

"Funny, I thought I was most known for my alcohol," I returned, ripping the supporting beam from inside the wall and spearing it through a cluster of androids circling the corner. I took that kabob and swung it like a bat, ripping it through an entire interior wall to crush a line of androids into the oncoming adjacent wall. "The stairs are around that bend, central hallway. We'll need to cross two intersections to get there."

"I can feel the Aura Signature of the individual we're tracking…" Great. She could sense him and _I_ couldn't. "It's… No… Can it be…?"

"Save the revelations of this guy being _special_ for later," I let the beam I used sink into the wall as we rounded the corner, my arm immediately throwing up a shield as we pushed through a line of gunfire.

"You don't understand, this individual's Aura Signature almost matches theirs!" Inuba called out behind me.

 _Oh._

 _Four_ wasn't already _fucking enough_?

Fantastic.

* * *

The walls hadn't stopped pounding since the first quake seismically shook the entire compound.

So Anoel knew Niro must've found them, but she also knew that was exactly what this guy wanted. He was using her as bait. It was plain as day.

And the table she laid across only felt harder the more time seemed to pass, aching limbs refusing to move despite her every effort to try to twitch them every once in a while.

She was already wounded from her fight with Quinn, it wasn't like she could fight back. But her wings were sprawled out across the surface at her sides, draped and bent awkwardly and further than what looked comfortable for her.

They hurt too much to move right now.

Surprisingly enough, it wasn't the asshole who took her here that did this to her. It wasn't _him_ that broke some segments of her wings in trying to map out the internal structure of her body.

It wasn't _him_ that left her in a sore, curled up mess on a table with numbed and cold skin chilling her to her core.

No. He didn't so much as _touch_ her since he brought her here, but here she was just left to silently bristle in lingering pain from what they _said_ was research but she was pretty sure fell under the category of curious _torture._

And he had the audacity to look displeased about her current condition too, on top of all that.

The heels Ly bought her were long since removed, but she was glad they kept her dress on. But they could've cared just a _little_ more about it… instead of disheveling it and ripping it in a few places. Small streams of blood still trickled from her shivering, porcelain skin just beneath some of those tears.

Her worn dress held a stark contrast to the rest of the white room, its ruined black silk and tangerine gems glinting in the channeling light of the walls as she narrowed her gaze at him.

The room's walls weren't exactly flat, either. Its architecture had cube-like blocks sticking out of various areas, but the main patterns adorning the entirety of the large room had circuit-like patterns that glowed with black energy. Energy that matched the same ebony black of her dress. And each line traveled across the various pathways to scatter throughout the walls and floor of the room around her.

"I did plead to leave you untouched. But of course, young Maestro _must_ have it his way," his voice spoke.

Anoel's eyes narrowed a little more as she finally turned her gaze away, resting the side of her head heavily back against her uncomfortable 'bed'.

"A-And yet… you s-still did _nothing_ ," Anoel all but spat, her voice a little hoarse as she tried to bend her sore legs up.

She wasn't even tied down, and she couldn't move.

"My options are quite limited given who I'm working for. If I'm working with someone such as Sylvius Maestro for half a year like I have, I must at least give the impression I _actually_ work with him."

Half a year, huh? "Is t-that how long it's taken you to abduct a _single_ person?" Anoel asked, sorely moving her arm up to rest her hand in front of her as she managed to only just curl up on her side.

"Well, in a sense, yes and no," her 'waiter' replied. "You see, in regards to young Sylvius, half a year of a carefully planned approach was what was needed. If I may be honest, you are but one half of the entire whole."

Anoel lightly growled as she tried to bend her legs up now too, only succeeding in getting the aching limbs just partially bent into a more comfortable position over her flattened wing. "Just to draw Niro in? You realize he's going to level this entire compound… right?"

"This is but one of many. It matters not to me. I constructed this compound to study you briefly and contain your mad dog as long as possible before he inevitably breaks out. My purpose was simply to keep both of you here to give young Maestro his opportunity to act on his _actual_ desired goal."

This was only a distraction? For what? Anoel's eyes narrowed into slits as she stared blankly at the wall away from him, body going limp now that she'd found a position to lie in.

They were after something else… _he_ was after _someone_ else. But, who?

Ano's eyes slowly started to widen as she strained her neck a little, pointing a glare over her slender shoulder to meet his face again. "This _bullshit_ better leave my sister _out of it_."

The man lifted a hand to dissuade her. "He has no interest in the younger phoenix. Not yet anyway. Though, I would stand to reason she would be something akin of a pest to him should she decide to stand in his way."

"Then who the _hell_ is he after? He can't be after-" Anoel cut herself off as her eyes widened further, her gaze narrowing a few seconds after to try to pierce a hole through his eye sockets with her vision alone. "Lightning… that bastard uses lightning…"

Kitsuki was deathly afraid of lightning. It _petrified_ her. But Anoel couldn't ever figure out _why_ because the girl buried it so far behind so many walls that it was impossible to peer into that kind of past.

Now she knew.

"Yes… You're starting to understand what this is all about. I can see it well within your eyes."

Anoel grumbled to herself as she rolled back over, resting her head heavily against the table as she tightened her loosely clasped hand resting on the table's surface in front of her.

If Sylvius' plan was to take Kit, Arex wasn't going to just step out of his way and let him have her. She was too attached now.

Even if he _took_ her in front of Arex's eyes, she'd still go after him.

That was one of the painful parts about knowing how devoted Arex gets.

"I need to get out of here…" Anoel murmured. Arex was going to chase after him and get herself hurt.

"You needn't worry about your sister. Young Dante is currently with her. Her safety is entirely guaranteed," he assured, laying a hand on the table.

"And you expect me to _believe_ that?" Anoel muttered back.

"I expect you to believe in his ability. I know you've peeked into the dark corners of his mind. But you've only scratched the surface really. You've yet to truly know and understand the sort of person young Dante is, and what lengths he will actually go to in order to protect what he wants. So… in that regard, you can take my word for it that your sister's safety is guaranteed."

This was _her_ sister he was talking about. He didn't know a damn thing about what she'd throw herself in the way of to reach out for someone else. Even her.

And it _definitely_ sounded like this guy knew an _awful_ lot about everyone involved. Just how long were these people watching them?

How _obsessed_ could they be to just observe their moves and actions for _this damn long_?

Anoel held her breath as she closed her eyes, letting her hand loosen before falling open against the table. "Just… get the hell away from me. You've done enough."

"Not quite. There are still two more things I've yet to accomplish before the mad dog arrives soon." His hand moved from the table to her forehead, two fingers lightly touching her skin at its center. "Please, take a deep breath."

Anoel was a bit short of that, so she didn't bother.

"This is in order to help you my dear, not harm you."

 _Even_ if that was true… "Deep breaths aren't exactly in my capabilities right now, _Valar_."

"As I just discovered for myself currently…" he spoke back, his brow furrowing as he focused on his touch against her head. "Very well then. Be forewarned this will hurt somewhat. After all, I am at the very least healing your fractures. Think of it as the beginning of a lengthy apology. After all, I did mention I don't particularly enjoy these kinds of assignments."

Anoel tensed her jaw as she kept her eyes closed, the rest of her sore body lacking the ability to tense up too. "Doesn't feel like much of a sincere apology."

"As I said, it's but the start. I would do more, but the mad dog approaches quickly."

 _Stop calling him that_ , Ano growled in her head.

"My apologies. It's but a term I am used to in quick reference to mr. Ezdeil."

"He's not some sort of depraved dog, so stop using it."

"Of course."

Anoel ground her teeth together for a moment before taking a short breath, feeling the pressure of her lungs try to force it back out of her as soon as she did. "Just get it over with, then."

* * *

So…

The prick who took Anoel had the same energy signature as Dante.

And the _rest_ of his damn family.

"Why the _hell_ are your _bullshit_ problems becoming mine?" I growled loudly, burying an android into the metal doors in front of us before stepping forward and kicking it straight through the massive entryway.

An enormous white room opened up, torn open by breaching doors as that single bot's destroyed body slid into the middle of a small army of androids waiting inside the overly large chamber.

Black energy angrily pulsed through the conduits of the chamber's ground, rushing up the uneven white walls of the area I just broke into.

The _entire room_ was a joke, the flat floor giving way to the jaggedly cubed walls while the rest of it channeled with surging black lines.

It looked the exact same as the rest of the facility.

"It's not necessarily 'our' problem, mr. Ezdeil…" Inuba voiced back. "I merely described the nature of his Aura more accurately to inform you. He… will pose an adequate challenge."

"I don't care if he poses a _challenge_ or _not_ ," I shot back, crushing my forearm into the doorframe as we passed through to collapse the hallway behind us. "This guy's related to Dante and he _took_ my _partner_."

She turned her gaze to me as an armada of sprinting androids got crushed beneath the collapsing debris. "While the type is a sort of match, it doesn't mean entirely they're related. He could simply possess a duality type nature of the same category as theirs."

"He has the same _god damned energy_ as your immortal leader," I growled, bullets starting to tear through me as I glared at the array of moving machinery and armed androids littering the room. "Probably from the same damn source too."

I didn't even care to throw up a barrier. This constant hail of projectiles was getting annoying to deal with. And this entire place was one vulnerable body away from being _nuked_.

Thundering echoes of crashing metal sounded from the room through the nearest wall, but the piercing movement of hydraulic arms and a much larger automated droid filtered into the gunfire of the room from its center.

"Oh, _fun_ ," I stated darkly, crushing my hands together as the activation of a slowly rising multi-modular walking tank began to show itself. "Another toy to fodderize."

Before the colossal thing could move, the wall to the right of it warped inward and _shattered_ from its outwardly caving center.

A twin tank-droid just as big as it slid through in a heap of smoking metal and dented armor as its interior melted onto the white floor of the chamber.

Scarlet's small steps ghosted into the room from the new entry point. Her ruby gaze trailed in a streaking red light, a malicious gleam nestled so deeply in her eyes the entire room started to quake as she twitched.

The small lithe girl was angry, buzzing with energy as it flowed like an endless channel through her limbs and hair. She was still just as pissed off as she was the moment she got shot in the head.

"Only a _coward_ hides behind robots… crying and shaking like an _infant_ ," Scarlet growled as the ground deteriorated beneath her feet. "Was this supposed to be a challenge? This is an _insult!"_

Energy collected in her arm, flowing down to the weapon she grasped in her right hand, its blade illuminating with an angry vermillion glow.

"Give me a _fight!_ "

I watched as her words were met with a pistoning leg from the fresh tank standing over her, slamming down with its full body weight and more, only for her to crush the attempt with a thrusted hand.

Inuba's hair fluttered as I glanced to the side, the kitsune's frame already stepped forward and jutting her hand out at the machine.

"Kitsune Art #33… FoxFire Burst!" A large, condensed column of white flame rapidly connected between armored machine and her with a cry from her throat. The piercing burst melting a large, gaping hole into it and knocking it down.

Scarlet's weapon surged immediately after, volatile red energy erupting from its blades before drilling through the machine the moment she touched it. And when it did, everything that held the droid together weakened instantly as crimson plasma shot through its chassis.

The girl looked utterly disappointed.

She had a right to be.

"Move," I growled from above, the ground where I stood earlier completely caved in from my leap as I drove my fist into the machine's cracking and smoldering body.

The air broke as its armored body _shattered_ , shrapnel exploding into the room in a destructive cone of debris that lodged itself into anything _remotely_ solid.

 _Everything_ in the room dropped to the floor as I landed heavily in the smoldering rubble of wires and panels, a decimation of androids clattering to the floor as the last bit of shrapnel ripped through the visor of the last one standing.

My hard eyes turned to Inuba, Scarlet already breaking her way into the next room as gunfire erupted from the other side. "How many more floors?"

"We're currently on the same floor he is. We've but a few more meters ahead of us," Inuba stated.

* * *

Arex's hands were still shaking as she fiddled with her scroll. Anoel wasn't responding again… and she couldn't even get in _contact_ with Niro.

It almost seemed like they were off the grid, and GHOST couldn't even get a trace on either of their locations.

Which… _really_ didn't sit well with Arex right now.

"Ciel, Leo, whatever you're up to, time to drop it," Dante stated as he hurriedly walked down the halls with the phoenix, HoloScroll in a call in front of him.

"What's the rush big brother? TV show to watch?" a female voice spoke back.

"Nope. Code 4A," he simply stated.

Her voice meter spiked. "Woah, you serious?! Who got nabbed?!"

"Kitsuki," Dante answered. "I'll explain more when I get to the dorm. Are Musashi and Bailey with you?"

"Yes, we're currently present," another female voice sounded from the call.

Dante nodded, and Arex was only feeling worse. He was contacting… a lot of people. "Good. Grab Nori and Kaliel, and see if RWBY's got free time on their hands. We're gonna need a few hands on deck for this one."

"Roger roger," was the last thing Ciel said as the call ended, and Dante swiped away his holographic screen.

"Hey, still tingly from that guy's lightning?" the immortal asked, nudging Arex slightly.

That tiny nudge drew a flinch out of Arex, and she couldn't help but shrink her shoulders in as they walked. "More from the other thing."

"Don't worry, we'll get her back." His presence seemed to step away, and she was a little relieved from the space he gave her. "And I'm for sure going to be taking that bastard's hand when I get my hands on him. You can take the other if you want."

"I only want Kit back…" the phoenix muttered under her breath. She didn't care how they did it, just as long as she got her back.

Dante's voice paused as they took a few steps in silence, and Arex just huddled down into herself a little more, taking a tight hold of her arm. Then he sounded reassuring again. "Like I said, don't worry all too much. From what I gathered, that guy won't do anything really. He's just a seriously obsessive freak…"

"I-It's not what he _might_ do," Arex replied back. Her voice quivered as much as her fingers did, scroll almost slipping from her grasp as she let her arm curl in toward her body. "It's what he already did to her."

That look on Kit's face when he grabbed her… it was still ingrained in Arex's mind. It was a stare of terror and petrification, like her worst fear was suddenly coming to life and she was helpless to stop it.

He'd done a lot more than just take her…

"That kind of look definitely had some background context between those two," Dante responded. "If I had to take a guess, all of this wasn't happening within the recent period of time. She _knew_ who he was. And she definitely didn't look all too surprised he was there. It was like she was expecting it."

"Dreading it. It looked like she was dreading it eventually happening." Arex's voice fell again as they turned the corner, her eyes dragging over the floor as her numb legs somehow kept carrying her forward. "You don't know this about her… but Kit hid herself in a closet the last time Beacon had a thunderstorm. She's _terrified_ of the flashes of light."

And now Arex knew why.

"I… sorta knew that already," Dante admitted, and Arex's gaze slowly drew back up to him. "See, I started investigating a few weeks ago about her partner's death. It was just too suspicious for me. I tried to get a lead normally but found nothing. The guy that took her was so meticulous with his methods he made everything untraceable. Except, he didn't account for what I can 'see'."

He… looked into that? Official records said it was Grimm that killed the student, not some sort of planned murder.

"Elisia pointed out a beowolf that had weird burn marks on it. So we went to the Emerald Forest and hunted it down. When I got to it, I peeked into its memories and saw what went down. Those cameras in the area that went down?" he said, pointing up a bit. "The beowolf was about to pounce them when it saw lightning jump out of the cameras to paralyze Kitsuki and her partner, which made both of them easy prey for the beowolves."

He managed to see that? All Arex was told before she transferred in was that Kit's previous partner died during initiation, and that Anoel was probably going to look into the matter.

And knowing her own sister, there wasn't any real 'probably' in that equation at all. She was _going_ to look into it. But, none of it really came up. Which usually meant Anoel found her answer. And… that also meant she didn't want to share it.

"Wolvies got her partner, and nicked Kitsuki when she was able to make a run for it. Never saw a face," Dante said. "But when I saw that douchebag use lightning, I knew then and there that was the guy I was looking for."

This would all explain why Kit can get so tense sometimes, moments Arex always just pegged to poor social interaction. And… it also gave a harsh reason why Kit's first instincts were always to lock herself away and disappear.

She was running from him.

"Did you get a hold of your sister?" Dante asked.

"No…" Arex shook her head, finally bringing her gaze away from her treading feet to glimpse the dormitory doors as they walked. "And that scares me too, because GHOST can't track her this time. Her signal doesn't exist."

"What? Is that true Ghost?" he asked with concern in his tone.

"Unfortunately, it is," GHOST's voice replied, tone slipping out of the speakers of Arex's clasped scroll. "I've been monitoring for her signal and boosting scroll towers to find last known locations. If Niro's with her, his signal cut off 87 miles from the western wall of Vale."

Dante let out a stifled chuckle as he shook his head. "That bastard… Now I want to kill him even more…"

"K-Kill who?" Arex asked.

"Not your leader. Unless he tries to pick a fight at any other later date. Except Tuesday," Dante said with a shrug. "No, the guy that took Kitsuki got the jump on us in more than two ways… Guess who isn't here to blow him out of the water?"

"The most effective way to take Niro out of the equation _is_ to take Anoel out of it," GHOST cut in again. "Guy probably thinks it's smart. He's not thinking of the backlash."

"Not currently, no," Dante replied. "As long as Niro isn't present, he doesn't have to worry so much. Bad luck for him either way, because I'm pretty sure he didn't account for me and everyone else that would help… If I didn't know any better, I'd say he's looking down on us."

"Or keeping those plans out of your knowledge," GHOST said.

Dante shook his head. "Either way… he practically stabbed the devil in the back and thinks he can get away with it. Wait till he sees a pissed off phoenix kick his ass to Sunday."

Arex grimaced at that. "We have to find him first…"

"The Maestro Manor isn't far from the upper districts," GHOST informed, but her voice took a harsh dip in tone as the light filtering through Arex's scroll flickered. "It's surrounded by an electrical deadzone, though. I can't get in."

"Damn… That's fine, then. Thank you for trying at least," Dante said as he and Arex turned the next corner to their dorm rooms. "Hopefully Ciel gathered everyone up. Because we need a short talk before we go diving into the lion's mouth."

Just as long as there was enough of them… Arex didn't want to think about what they'd probably have to push through to get to Kit, or even if the others would be willing to help on a notice like this.

Even if they couldn't risk that, Arex already knew she was going either way. With or without everyone around her.

It was just… She didn't stand a chance on her own.

The door unlocked when Dante stepped up, and with a press of the hand he opened it shortly after to peek inside.

Arex was starting to envy how he could be so calm. She was struggling to even articulate words let alone stop her fingers from shaking.

"Looks like the gang's all here," Dante said with a chuckle.

The phoenix took a deep breath, but stayed in the hallway instead of go immediately inside. She was a mess. How was someone like her… even supposed to be convincing enough to get a few more to help?

* * *

As soon as the doors warped beneath my kick, I flooded the immediate room just inside with an electrical burst of green energy.

The entire chamber of white blocks surged with it by the time the metal doors unhinged and bulleted into the room, embedding themselves into the far wall in a crash of whatever metal this place was made of.

 _There…_ Anoel's frame was limp on a white, cube-like table in the center of the room. That was the only obstacle in this entire facility that mattered.

The rest of it could just goddamn crumble to the ground for all I care.

As soon as I laid eyes on her, the energy I flooded into the room collapsed into a spherical barrier around her and hardened, condensing under the closing fingers of my glove.

"So, _you're_ the one who took her," I growled. The dressy figure standing leanly between two destroyed, crumpled doors was my _only_ target now.

And he even dressed to the occasion. How formal. That explained why he was able to steal Anoel away, though. He looked like a high-paid waiter.

"Indeed I was. My apologies," he said with a bow, black-gloved hands gesturing in a polite manner. _Wonderful_. I'd rather he not _informally_ accept his immediate death. "I was unfortunately tasked with keeping her here. And in that regard… you as well."

"Then why don't you just _off_ yourself then if you feel so bad," I cut back, slamming my arm into the framework of the wall beside me as soon as Inuba stepped into the room.

The metal hallway behind us collapsed, alongside the entirety of the surrounding facility floor-level and its scattered rooms.

"Self-termination isn't an option I'm afraid," he spoke, smiling as he pulled the black gloves on his hand tight. "Nor will it ever be. My goal is to survive and document all that I see and experience. I intend to keep doing so, even with you currently-"

He brought up a wall between himself and the crushing leg I was driving into his side, cushioning the blow just enough for him to leap out of my way.

Fragments of his defense ripped into the wall behind him in a shattered cone. Shame none of that hit him.

"Now now, no need to be hasty. Allow the young miss behind you to carry off your dear friend first. Getting caught in the backblast would be disastrous, wouldn't you agree?" He looked past me to Inuba, through the shell of the barrier I collapsed around my partner.

The kitsune glanced at him, looking confused before she took a step forward. I let her into the barrier, and she appeared next to where Anoel lay in a burst of white flame, disappearing in that same burst not long after with the phoenix in her arms.

"I will care for her," Inuba spoke against the thunderous crashing that sounded throughout the facility walls.

" _Heal_ her," I spoke back, the barrier left in the center of the room collapsing in on itself before shattering to trickle back into my glove. "As for _you_ , I'm surprised you stuck around."

My own glove flexed as it surged with the energy coming back to it, sparks of lime green erupting between my fingers as I reached out and touched the white, cubed-over wall beside me.

This guy had domain over the matter this facility was built from.

Energy drained into the walls of the room at the same time the energy hidden inside it bit me back, a numbing pain sweeping into my hand before I threaded mine to weave with Valar's own inside this sector of the building.

Corroding into the control he held over the matter in here.

"You seem to know me," I said, drawing my hand away and back to my side. The thundering crashes dully echoing through the walls still getting closer.

"Indeed," he replied with a sickeningly polite smile. "I know a great deal _about_ you. Which is why wrestling control from me won't work. My chances of defeating you are fairly low as it is, but there still is that chance of success. I will happily work with what I have."

He tapped the floor with his dress shoe, and the matter beneath my feet tried to erupt upward.

He was trying to _throw_ me. I lowered to my knee and slammed my fist through it, shattering through the rising matter before pushing myself out of the way of two collapsing pillars shooting out of the walls.

His control was still in them, but my energy made it all the easier to destroy.

That's what it was good at, anyway.

"You had the chance to leave," I replied, my gaze staring through the lip of my hat as I reached up and stopped a bulleted horizontal column of white matter ripping out of the wall.

I took that and broke it away, ripping it out of the wall to fire it toward where he stood on the other side of the room.

He moved his head out of the way, positioning his hand in front of the chunk drilling toward his chest. The block of matter ground to a stop in the air as it elongated into a lance, his next rising gesture twisting the projectile in its place before shooting it forward with blinding speed.

My hat immediately lifted just as I bashed the tip of it to the side with my forearm, leaping forward just as it drove into the wall beside me.

Another was already hurdling out of the area just behind him, closing the distance faster than the first.

I couldn't deflect it this time, so Aura surged through my glove as I closed my fist around green energy and drove a punch into the razor tip of the spear. Energy shot down the length of the javelin and shattered it from the inside out, the matter acting as a conduit to cannon a piercing line of energy straight back at him.

The matter beneath him lifted him out of the path of the piercing energy, an air-shattering hole ripping through most of the wall where he previously stood.

I needed to remove him from this place.

My hand fell back to the ground as I pushed forward, his own hand falling with a quick downward swipe, and a raining hail of shining lances shot down from the ceiling.

I immediately deflected the first into the floor, but the spear of black-traced white erupted in a dark-energy explosion. It carried a field of the same numbing energy this guy had stuffed into the walls. And from the cold taste of it, it was undoubtedly his Aura I was choking on.

The second javelin ripped into my arm and jammed into the ground, nailing me to the floor as another found its way through my shoulder to lock me down further.

Then they both erupted.

 _Fine then._

A field of swirling green energy erupted out of the ground as I slammed my glove into the floor, lines of light surging upward to drive the rest of the raining projectiles down into the area around me as the holes through my body slowly closed.

"How very interesting… Your method of healing is unique, but subpar in comparison to your friend," Valar spoke.

" _It's not healing_ ," I growled, closing my hand into a fist before I lifted it from the floor and _sunk_ it back into the white ground.

"My apologies, would reconstruction be a term more suitable for you?" his voice asked.

" _No_." A rippling wave ripped into the ground as I stuffed it full of a tidal wave of Aura, a trembling shake of the ground overtaking the entire facility as I blew out the foundation of the building beneath us.

The mountain was next.

I yanked my hand out of the poisonous ground and stood back up, white matter crumbling out of the walls as the floor violently rumbled.

I don't know if it was the numbing byproduct of his Aura or my lack of care, but the temperature of this room was steadily rising as well. And I hardly noticed.

But something caught my senses from the hallway I collapsed when I got in here.

Metal screeched and tore from the side, the left wall slowly starting to glow red hot, before its entire structure weakened and warped, exploding outward into the room.

Oh. _Great_. She ran out of chew toys.

Red, plasmatic energy recollected toward its source as Scarlet hopped out of the tunnel in the wall she drilled through, glowing molten metal leading all the way through its wide interior.

And she was brimming with the energy she ripped from the matter around her, complete and total transmogrification into pure, unmitigated antimatter.

She was turning into a _walking timebomb_ on a nuclear scale.

"Five thousand robots…" the girl uttered lowly. Slow, calm breathing rhythmically causing her shoulders to rise and fall.

The girl soon let her illuminated eyes lock onto the well-dressed man in the air.

"Five thousand and _one._ "

I immediately took her and threw her at him.

An eruption of red plasma flooded into my body, disintegrating the majority of the area around me in the fraction of a second it took to grab and release her. And every bit of it sunk into my bones beneath my seared skin.

Her weapon snapped to her hand before she collided with him, bringing its heavy blades down to connect with his body. I growled under the pressure of her energy and sunk down onto a knee, watching him side-step her to let her pass him. She drove her feet into the ceiling just as she did before kicking off and landing on the other side.

I clutched my arm, skin violently trying to repair the damage her Aura caused. The girl's lingering energy wasn't going away…

"Too predictable my dear," that damn voice spoke out.

"Says the textbook _villain_ hiding behind his subpar automatons who are about as useless as a waterproof tea bag," Scarlet countered calmly. "You're in no position to patronize me when you're as generic as a loaf of bread."

Her red energy felt like it was festering as it boiled inside my body, the ground starting to disappear beneath my knee as I tried to absorb it.

"Oh but I am. You see, you don't interest me all too much. I already know a great deal about-"

" _I don't care_." The blades on Scarlet's weapon folded back as a barrel protruded from the front. The girl then swung it down and to the side, keeping it there in a defensive position, only to collide with my glove as I grabbed her wrist with my bare hand.

Her suddenly alarmed gaze snapped to me as the room saturated into an overwhelming _red_ as scarlet energy diverted from her and into _me_ , the entire room eroding away in seconds as the matter of the ground and everything it attached to fell apart.

Scorched particles flooded into the air as the facility collapsed, my boots cratering into the base of the mountain's foundation beneath the dwindling building as I ripped out every last morsel of stored up energy Scarlet had churning inside her.

The fight in her eyes immediately vanished, and I caught her before she could fall limp to the ground in exhaustion.

"Hey, Inuba!" I yelled, taking Scarlet up into a tighter hold before spinning and _throwing_ her through the open air of the fading facility.

The white kitsune was camped out in the forest with Anoel's injured frame, but she managed to softly catch Scarlet with a small skidding of her heels, her tail bristling from the lingering energy on Scarlet's skin.

"Keep them safe! Or I'll kill you too!" I called out, taking a stumbled step to right myself into a standing position.

 _Everything_ was _red_. And that molten, scarlet energy flooding my vision erupted in my eyes as it tried to eat through every fiber of my body, twitching through my fingers and arms as the mountain around us started to erode into the air.

Just like the facility.

"Careful now mr. Ezdeil. If young Dante heard you saying that, he'd very much take your head before you even realized it," he warned.

"In _what_ world would I even _remotely_ care about dying?" I growled back, biting through a painful surge of plasma trying to eat into my throat and lungs.

When my gaze finally turned up, he was still floating pretty on his slab of matter.

"Besides," I grumbled, my voice coming out in a strained bite of pain. "if she _can't_ tank this, then she's disappointing _both_ of us."

And by _this_ … I meant the _nuclear detonation_ of a _mountain_.

I flooded my bones with reinforcing Aura as plasma started ripping out of my skin in uncontained streaks of light, embedding melting streams of red into the ground as I took a slow step.

The ground was quick to crater away as soon as I touched it, but my attention wasn't on that.

My _target_ was lifting his arms and reforming the fading matter around him into a multi-barrier shell.

Shielding this wasn't going to be that easy…

The air between my position on the ground and his thickening barriers burned into a bleary line of molten plasma and erupting antimatter, the shell he built up cracking for a moment as I drove a fist into it before completely shattering.

Superheated air quaked under the rising temperatures as the rest of those barriers broke away, the line of light finally connecting between his final position and my leap.

Before the plasma breaking into the ground could even realize I was gone, I grabbed the slow-moving form of _him_ hiding in his cocoon and drove him by the neck back into the base of the mountain below.

Everything beneath us caved away as I pushed off the crumbling bedrock and brought us both into the heart of the mountain, stone melting away as the energy inside my body started breaking out of its containment.

By the time we reached the core of the entire tectonic mass of bedrock and stone, the energy inside me trailed out and arced into the earth encompassing our tomb.

Then that pure _red_ sunk into the heated underground air and detonated, the heart of the explosion ripping out of my body and evaporating the mountain from the inside out in a blinding concussive blast.

Sunlight fell as soon as the mountain was cleared, shining over the crater I caused as the remnants of his body fell with me toward the desolated, scorched rock beneath us.

He was strong enough to survive the blast point-blank.

For the most part.

Everything below his waist was gone, his left arm missing entirely. And everything else about him was completely burned and tattered.

But there was still life in him.

My hand around his neck finally let go as I crashed into the ground, boots landing with a hard crack of bedrock as his remains fell with a thud in front of me.

"Hehehe… Even with… a small window of success… I still could not… best you…" he laughed out, with what little breath he had.

Remnants of Scarlet's energy scattered from my skin as I stepped forward, gazing down at him under the open light of the hazy sky. "You make it sound like we fought more than once."

"Perhaps we have…" he said with a wry chuckle. "No matter… Your time… will come soon enough… Savor your minor victory for today…" he chuckled with a pained laugh. "It may be… one of your very last… before the Darkness consumes you… You will understand… what it truly means to be weak…"

The Dark… huh? "I never care to win. You just took something of mine, and _she_ didn't deserve to be dragged into this."

"On that… we can agree on…"

I lowered my eyes to his would-be corpse. "Good."

At least we could agree on one thing, before I snuffed the lingering life out of him.

* * *

Co-Author: _HydraFlow_

Co-Author: _andy2396_

* * *

 **I'm part of a Discord server now? Link below.**

* * *

 **So, I spent a long time considering whether or not to intermingle Niro's actions with Arex's side of this double-tailed arc. But I decided to drive straight through Niro's in this chapter.**

 **Arex's starts in the next. Besides, I doubt Niro would've waited long to nearly die getting Anoel back.**

 **He** _ **did**_ **take Scarlet along for more than her tracking. Let's just say he could use the boost in a facility that locked him out from outside sources.**

 **Thoughts…? This was a weird fight that I'm usually not comfortable writing, so any critique is good.**

 **On a side note, a big thanks to andy and HydraFlow. I usually don't mention them, but whenever their characters are involved, assume they're writing for those actions. I'll be putting in their author names as "Co-Author" tags from now on.**

 **For now,** _ **Favorite**_ **and** _ **Follow**_ **the story.**

 **I look forward to seeing** _ **REVIEWS**_ **for this. You'll be introduced to a LOT of concepts of mine. Feel free to give me your thoughts.**

 **Cya XP**

 **Also! If you wanted to speak with me more freely, I'm part of a Discord server with a handful of authors. Feel free to drop in and say hi and stay if you want to stick around.**

* * *

 _ **[ discord . gg / YU8A6Bp ]**_

 **Don't forget to remove the spaces if you do use the link. FFN is finicky with formatting.**

* * *

 **Omake:** _by us three_

* * *

"I hate these…" Rae complained, sporting a pair of Arex's track pants now beneath her white t-shirt.

Arex didn't even _want_ to look her way, but did anyway. Just to see Rae cupping her hands under her braless breasts beneath her clothes.

"They keep screwing with my balance." She continued to _prod_ at them, Arex forcefully snapping her gaze away. "One hour of being a girl and I already hate it."

"You'll get used to it. It was a pain though…" Danni mentioned as she pushed her bust up a bit. "Well, in a way, thank you Inuba."

 _Can this_ not _be a sexualized anime? Seriously?_ Arex stifled a groan.

"W-Well, that's your fault for being bigger than m-" the phoenix turned her heated gaze away just as Rae shot a glare at her to shut her up. Arex's tone immediately dropped. "You'll get used to it."

"I don't _want_ to get used to it, _Arex,_ " the blonde girl admonished, despite her slight voice cracks.

"What do you think looks better…?" Nira suddenly asked calmly, the flutter of two new articles of clothing draped in her hands carrying into the room.

Arex looked over to see the short girl holding up a pair of leggings and a pair of short-shorts, both black and pretty form fitting.

The phoenix had a permanent blush on her cheeks by then. She just accepted it. Because it _wasn't_ going _away_.

"They both would," Arex replied, sounding exhausted.

"Huh…" Nira closed her small mouth slowly before walking over, setting the two items on the end of Arex's bed. "I'm going shopping then. I need my own outfits."

Arex was shocked. "Seriously?"

"Mhm. Wanna come?" Nira asked, mind already set.

Why'd you have to hum like that?! Why'd you have to be so _cute_?!

"Take me with you, I need new everything…" Rae uttered defeatedly with a sigh. She was not enjoying this at all.

"Then I guess I'll drive us over," Danni said, flipping a pair of car keys between her fingers. "We'll put everything in the trunk."

Arex let out a heavy breath as she closed her eyes, trying her best to relax.

They were going out in public… with the three looking like _this_.

What could go wrong?

The sound of the door opening drifted through Arex's ears before her heart stopped, feeling three familiar heat signatures standing in the hall.

Oh _god no! No!_

 _This_ could go wrong! _Why now?!_

 _Of all places?! Why here?!_

"Oh my god…" Anoel's voice sounded broken, soft, excited, _literally a mixture of everything_ , as Arex fearfully opened her eyes.

"Hi. We're going to the mall," Nira spoke calmly, _cutely_. Her gaze flicked back and forth as she looked up at Lylac and Anoel in the doorframe. "Wanna come?"

Ano squealed and tackled Nira _straight_ onto the carpet.

Arex's collar was very quickly grabbed by small hands as a pair of desperate, violet eyes bored into her own. "Arex _please!_ Kill m-"

That grip was torn away from her by a pair of stronger arms wrapping their slim way around her waist and pulling her off the phoenix.

"I _seriously_ hope I'm not dreaming," Ly exclaimed with an incredibly wide grin as she proceeded to examine Rae meticulously.

Inuba approached Danni with confusion, and despite the panic Danni held onto, she calmly stared back at the kitsune as best she could.

"Are you…?" Inuba asked, trailing off.

Clearing her throat, Danni found her voice. "I-I'm the eldest sibling, Danni. Nice to meet you," she said, bowing respectfully, and hoping Inuba would believe the statement.

"Oh, I'm sorry! I thought-"

"No, that's definitely Dante," Anoel spoke up from the ground, making Danni jolt up. A content Nira sat squeezed in Anoel's arms and watched comfortably from in her lap. "And _this_ adorable little creature is Niro."

Ano's eyes turned to Rae in Ly's embrace, feet dangling, and Arex _swore_ a devilish glint suddenly overtook her sister's eyes.

"And _that's_ Ray."

Arex cleared her throat with a soft squeak, holding her fist against her lips as she hesitantly looked off to the side. "I gave them all different names, if it helps."

" _Oh_ I'm glad you did, because whatever you gave this one is _never_ going away," Ly replied mischievously, hands feeling every square inch of the furiously blushing Rae and eyes taking in every small detail.

"W-What happened to the three of you?!" Inuba exclaimed.

"I fell in a river," Nira answered simply, looking up at the fox from her place in Anoel's lap.

"I woke up like this," Danni answered with a shrug.

Rae just squeaked cutely and helplessly.

Arex sighed, her own embarrassment thankfully dying away as the levels of it spiked in other places within the room. "That one's Rae," she pointed out, emphasizing the 'e' change at the end before pointing to the other two. "Nira. Danni. Please don't do anything-"

"Too late," Anoel interrupted, Nira's hat resting on the floor as the elder phoenix peeked down into the front of the girl's slim coat collar.

Nira didn't seem to mind.

"I feel like a kid on christmas, this is the greatest moment of my life," Ly sounded out of character with how excited her tone was, like a different woman entirely as her grin only seemed to widen with every passing moment.

"I-I'm moving… to Atlas… a-and changing my… name," Rae wheezed between deep breaths.

Inuba seemed to be the only one taking this all _semi_ -responsibly.

"Y-You look very attractive…" the kitsune managed to squeak out to Danni, her fox tail whipping about slightly and unsure where to look.

Arex needed to _leave_. There was way too much tension in the room for her to stay here…

"D-Do I now? W-Well, thanks for that…" the seemingly unflinching Danni answered with a reddened face.

Anoel's gaze suddenly grew curious as she popped her head up from over Nira's shoulder. "Hey, who's interested in a-"

" _Ano_. No," Arex shot down, _hard_.

The younger phoenix got up onto her feet and padded across the room, snatching her sneakers by her dresser before leaning down to slip them on.

"We're leaving. _All_ of us," she muttered in a low, but clear voice. "This room's way too enclosed to be healthy."

"You're just leaving because you're hopelessly gay, Arex," Ly retorted, quirking an eyebrow as she turned to smirk at her. "You don't need to hide it from anyone. We're all _girls_ here."

"T-That's not it!" Arex all but squealed, standing in her sneakers now with a burning blush.

"No, that's totally it. Your pulse has been going at high speed the whole time little bird," Danni answered. "Might as well be a hummingbird than a phoenix right now."

 _Shut it, Danni!_ "W-We're going to the mall! Right now!" Arex huffed out a hot breath as she reached down and plucked up Kit's boots too, bringing them to the kitsune on the bed. "They need clothes."

"Are we all going?" Nira asked curiously, head lulled slightly from Anoel's attentively brushing fingers through her hair.

" _Yes_ ," Arex replied sharply.

Nira just looked excited.


End file.
